


Anthony and Athene

by LunaLupin1999



Category: Original Work
Genre: 1950s, Boarding School, Classical References, F/M, Rugby, Twins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:54:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 83
Words: 133,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27328378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LunaLupin1999/pseuds/LunaLupin1999
Summary: Anthony starts his first day at boarding school. He has been looking forward to starting at St Christophers since his brother Simon started six years ago.Little does the eleven-year-old boy know, that he is about to meet the two loves of his life. Latin and the Classical World, and a young girl with deep green soulful eyes
Relationships: Anthony Pennington/ Athene Richards
Comments: 4
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

Anthony woke up and yawned quietly trying not to wake up his brother.

He looked around dazedly as he reached for his glasses and pulled them on. 

He knelt up on his bed and checked the calendar hanging over his bed.

A huge grin appeared on his face. It was today! 

He had been looking forward to this day since before he could remember, and it had finally arrived.

“Marky!” Anthony called over to his brother on the other side of their large bedroom.

There was no answer.

“Marky!” Anthony called a little louder.

“What?” grumbled Mark opening his eyes a fraction of an inch and glaring at his twin brother.

Anthony and Mark were identical twins and were both fairly tall and lanky for their age, they had jet black hair and deep blue eyes. All of the Pennington boys were fairly tall with black hair. There was one sure way to tell the twins apart though, Anthony couldn’t see past the end of his nose without a pair of glasses.

“It’s today!” beamed Anthony.

Mark rolled his eyes and checked the clock on his bedside table.

“It’s also half past five,” muttered Mark.

“Go back to sleep Tony,” he mumbled closing his eyes and falling back to sleep almost instantly.

Anthony sighed slightly and decided to let Mark get as much sleep as he could.

If Mark got annoyed at being woken up with only one roommate, it was going to be a nightmare for him tonight.

Tonight, he was going to have to share a room with at least nine other boys. 

He had been looking forward to today for as long as he could remember, ever since their oldest brother Simon started at St Christopher’s six years ago.

There was going to be no more small village primary school, today they were going to start boarding school.

Anthony’s trunk was already packed at the end of his bed, the only thing he had left to pack where his uniforms which were still downstairs. Marks wasn’t even half packed.

Anthony went over to his trunk and tried to check that everything was packed properly. 

He was straightening up the books in his trunk, when Mark sat up and glared at him again.

“Tony,” he said exasperated, “you’ve packed everything, now go back to sleep, or go and read a book. I don’t care! Just let me get back to sleep!”

“Sorry Marky,” said Anthony chuckling slightly.

He picked up one of his books out of his trunk and left Mark to get some sleep.

It was still only quarter to six so he crept down the corridors, trying not to wake up either of his other brothers or his Dad.

He found the door to the linen cupboard slightly ajar and he slipped in.

Anthony turned the light on in the room. They called it a linen cupboard, but it wasn’t as small as a cupboard. Half the room was taken up by several large shelves which were full of spare towels and bedsheets.

He carefully climbed his way up to the top shelf which didn’t have any towels or bedsheets on it. If he knocked any of Mrs Brown the housekeepers pristine sheets off their neat shelves he’d be for it alright.

He curled up on the top shelf and looked out the window. There was only a small window but it looked out over the driveway, and the roof of the house.

Anthony curled up and cracked open his copy of Swallows and Amazons. When he said his copy, it was really Simon’s, at least it had used to be. But Simon hadn’t read any of the Arthur Ransom books in years so Anthony had sort of inherited them.

Anthony had read it so many times that the pages were worn, but it was familiar. Every word seemed like an old song that he had heard a thousand times before.

He was so absorbed in his book, that at first, he hadn’t even heard people calling.

“Marcus!” called Simon, “Antonius!”

“Why is the light on?” wondered Nick before opening the door.

Anthony’s brother Nick poked his head around the door and smiled slightly.

“I’ve found one Si!” called Nick down the corridor.

“What you doing in here Tons?” asked Nick kindly as he helped his younger brother down from the shelf.

“I wanted to read,” said Anthony simply.

“But why in here?” chuckled Nick as they left the cupboard.

“Well, Mark wanted to sleep, and I didn’t want to disturb anyone,” muttered Anthony.

“Yeah well Mark’s a prat,” said Nick shaking his head as they headed downstairs together.

“Morning lads!” called Mr Pennington cheerfully from behind his copy of The Times as Nick and Anthony joined him at the breakfast table.

“Morning Dad!” beamed Nick as he helped himself to some toast.

Anthony tried to read his book whilst cutting the top off his egg at the same time, but he kept on missing with the knife because he was distracted.

“Anthony Charles Pennington!” said Mrs Brown walking over to him and picking up the book.

“What have I told you about reading at the table?” she asked as she cut the top off his egg for him.

“Dad’s reading his newspaper,” muttered Anthony somewhat foolishly.

“Yes well your father, can read and eat at the same time, you can’t!”

“No wonder you’re so skinny,” muttered Mrs Brown as she placed Anthony’s book on top of the china cabinet.

Anthony sighed slightly and looked at his book longingly.

“Eat up son,” chuckled Mr Pennington as he put away his newspaper, “the sooner you eat that boiled egg and toast the sooner you get your book back.”

Anthony looked up at his Dad and smiled before tucking into his boiled egg.

At that moment, Simon arrived pulling a half-asleep Mark who flopped down at his seat next to Simon.

Mark gave a huge yawn before reaching for the coffee pot.

Mr Pennington gave his son a meaningful look, before Mark grinned innocently and withdrawing his hand and drinking his milk.

“So how does the new prefect feel this morning?” smirked Simon looking at Nick.

“Nervous,” sighed Nick, “what if I get it wrong?”

“It’s a piece of cake,” shrugged Simon, “they’ll make anyone a prefect.”

“Funny thing you say that Simon,” sniggered Mark, “as you never got a badge.”

“Fair point,” chuckled Simon, “you’ll be fine Nick.”

“If you four don’t get a move on, none of you will get there on time!” said Mrs Brown coming over to the table.

She had left out four large neatly folded piles of uniforms.

Anthony picked up his pile of uniforms as he finished his breakfast. Mrs Brown reached up on top of the china cabinet and put his book on top of the pile.

“Thanks!” beamed Anthony.

“Get on with you,” sighed Mrs Brown.

Anthony walked slowly upstairs trying not to drop his pile of uniforms, he didn’t want them getting creased.

He gave his school shoes one last polish, even though they already shined before he started to get dressed into his uniform, grey trousers, white school shirt, a dark red jumper with the school crest, and a grey blazer with a red trim. 

He pulled on his new school shoes, and then tried to do up his tie, but he kept on getting it wrong.

Mark was wandering in and out of the room half in his uniform, half in his pyjamas trying to collect assorted possessions from around the house.

He was just trying to do his tie for what felt like the tenth time, when Mark came back in again.

“You haven’t seen my tap shoes have you?” asked Mark.

“I’ll go take a look,” sighed Anthony giving up the tie as a bad job for now.

From the strange sounds he heard through the ceiling yesterday, he thought he knew exactly where Mark’s tap shoes where.

Anthony headed up to the attic, and found the tap shoes in the corner of the room.

“Got you!” beamed Anthony picking them up and carrying them back downstairs.

“Why were your tap shoes in the attic?” asked Anthony.

“Oh so that’s where I left them!” said Mark somewhat muffled as he pulled on his jumper.

“The bare floorboards are great for practising on,” said Mark packing away his tap shoes and trying to squeeze his trunk shut.

Mark wasn’t a very neat packer, and his trunk was a jumble of various possessions pouring out, no wonder it wouldn’t shut.

Anthony had gone back to trying to tie his school tie

“Mark,” said Mr Pennington, “put the books on the bottom and fold the clothes properly, then it will shut.”

“Anthony, do you want me to show you again?”

“Yes please,” chuckled Anthony.

Mr Pennington showed Anthony how to tie his tie in the mirror again, and they practised until he got it right.

“Perfect!” said Mr Pennington as Anthony got it right.

He looked his two younger sons up and down for a moment beaming before pulling them both in for a hug.

“Your Mum would have been so proud,” sighed Mr Pennington.

“We know Dad,” chuckled Mark, “we know.”

“Right,” said Mr Pennington composing himself.

“Nick!” he called down the corridor, “Simon!”

“Yes Dad?”

“Aye aye sir?” said Simon giving him a brief salute in the corridor.

“Let’s get this luggage loaded please boys.”

Even though this was only Mark and Anthony’s first year, they knew what to do, Nick and Simon had been going for years.

They worked in pairs, Mark and Simon always worked together, as did Anthony and Nick.

Between the four of them they managed to get all four trunks and assorted extra luggage such as cricket bats and music bags into the boot of the range rover without anyone bumping into each other or getting hurt.

“I think that’s everything,” muttered Mr Pennington shutting the boot.

“I think you’ll find you’ve forgotten something,” said Mrs Brown coming out of the house with four boxes.

How Mrs Brown had managed to fill the four tuck boxes with rationing still going on was a miracle in itself, but there was a lot less sugar than there should have been in all the treats.

“Tuck!” exclaimed Simon rushing over and peering into his box.

“Brownie you’re a gem!” beamed Simon giving her a hug.

“Thanks Mrs Brown,” said Anthony taking his box from her.

“You’ve got some jam tarts in there,” she whispered conspiratorially, knowing they were Anthony’s favourites.

“Don’t tell your brothers or they’ll swipe the lot.”

“Thanks,” beamed Anthony peeking in the box quickly before sliding it back shut again.

“See you at half term!” said Mrs Brown waving as the boys piled into the car, and car pulled away from the driveway.

“And we’re off!” exclaimed Mr Pennington as they left the driveway.

“You excited boys?”

“I’ve just been made sports captain for our house, and I’m only lower sixth, yeah I’m excited!” 

“Dad?” asked Nick, “what if I fail my GCE O Levels?”

“First of all, Nick, you won’t fail, secondly if you do, you can just retake them next year.”

“You won’t be disappointed?” asked Nick surprised.

“I could never be disappointed as long as you try your hardest.”

“And what about the terrible twins?” asked Simon turning around in the front seat.

“I can’t wait,” beamed Mark.

“Is it true, that they have shows and concerts every single term?”

“Yes, but you’ll have to be bloody good to get in at your age Marky.”

“I am bloody good!” protested Mark outraged.

“I know that,” nodded Simon, “but you your mate Julie will have to show them that.”

“What about you Tony?” asked Nick.

“What?” asked Anthony who had been staring distractedly out the window.

“School? You looking forward?”

“Oh um yeah sure,” shrugged Anthony.

“You ok Tons?” asked Mark.

Anthony nodded enthusiastically to his twin brother before looking back out the window. But the truth was, he wasn’t alright. The closer they got to the school; the more worried Anthony got. 

What if they got to St. Christopher’s and it was no different from their primary school? 

Simon was keen on sport and there was lots of sport at St Chris’ and Nick was in the military cadets at school. Mark though was born to entertain, he and his best friend and next-door neighbour Julie. He had always felt at home under the stage lights, they had all sorts of stuff for people like Mark at St Chris’ concerts, choirs, plays, school entertainments, Mark would probably take part in all of those.

But then there was Anthony, he wasn’t like Mark or Simon who spilled over with confidence and made friends easily. He always felt much more comfortable with a book and took to all his lessons like a fish to water.

What if Anthony had dreamt of this day for years, just for all the others to think he was a know it all swat, or a teacher’s pet like they used to a primary school?


	2. Chapter 2

They drove for just over an hour until they had driven from West Sussex through to Hampshire. The school was right between the two military towns Aldershot and Andover.

“Alright lads, all off the skylark,” said Mr Pennington as he pulled the Range Rover in front of the school.

Simon leaped down from the front of the Range Rover and rushed to the boot to start unloading the trunks.

They all got out of the car to help with the luggage.

“Where do we find out house Mark and Tony are in?” asked Mr Pennington.

“They’ll probably be in with Old Mitch like us,” said Nick.

“Best check with The Dragon,” groaned Simon as he lifted down Anthony’s trunk.

“What’ve you got in here Tons?”

“Books,” mumbled Anthony.

“You do know that the school has a library right?” he chuckled.

“Not another military brat!” moaned Simon as a jeep pulled into the school drive.

“I don’t see why you’re so surprised,” said Nick as he pulled out another trunk, “the schools between Aldershot and Andover, there’s a lot of military in the area.”

Nick had heard Simon complaining about military brats for the past five years, but Nick felt sorry for the children from forces families, their parents might not come back for all they knew.

“Hey Pennington!” called a well-built muscly man who was talking to a sergeant who had just gotten out of the jeep.

“Yes Sir!” called Simon.

“Sir!” called Nick.

Mr Davies, the Welsh sports master who also ran the school military cadets beckoned them over. Roger Davies had been a sergeant during the war and had taught sports at St. Christophers ever since he had been demobbed.

“Come on we’re needed,” Simon told Mark and Anthony.

The four boys ran over to the jeep.

“Ye gods they’re multiplying!” exclaimed Mr Davies.

“These two aren’t yours are they?” he asked Simon.

“Yes sir,” chuckled Simon, “Mark and Anthony, Anthony’s the one in the glasses.”

“I look forward to seeing you both on the pitch,” said Mr Davies as he shook both their hands.

“Could you four give this young lady a hand with her luggage, sergeant Lewis has got to get back to base in Pembrokeshire.”

“Yeah sure,” nodded Simon, “what house is she in?”

“They’ve put the girls in with Mitchell, with you lot,” said Mr Davies double checking the list.

The jeep had already pulled away, leaving behind a pile of assorted luggage.

Standing next to the pile of luggage where the jeep had been, there was a young girl with two long auburn plaits. She must have been eleven if she was going to be in Upper Third with him, but she looked somewhat older. It wasn’t that she was tall, on the contrary she was fairly short, but there was something almost world-weary in her eyes, that made her look wise beyond her years.

“This is Athene Richards,” said Mr Davies, “Athene, this is Simon, Nick, Mark and Anthony Pennington. You’ll be in a class with the twins, stick by them and you won’t go far wrong Cariad.”

“Thank you Sir,” said Athene beaming, as she juggled her day bag, tuck box and a large old shoe box tied up with string which she was carrying under her arm.

“Shake a leg and give us a hand Tons,” said Nick as he picked up half the trunk.

Anthony nodded slightly and picked up the other half.

“Hi,” said Nick as they carried her trunk up to Athene’s dorm and she followed them.

“I’m Nick, and this my little brother Anthony. I’m a prefect so if you need any help or you get lost or something, you can come and find me.”

“Thanks,” beamed Athene.

“Um, how many girls are there at this school?”

“Well this is actually the first year that’s taking them,” said Nick, “so the only girls in the whole school will be in your class.”

“Let’s hope I’m not the only one then,” muttered Athene.

“Don’t worry you won’t be,” assured Nick, “our friend Julie’s joining too, she’s great.”

“Oh yeah Julies great,” muttered Anthony, “if you like ballet dancing and ponies.”

“Not quite my cup of tea thanks!” laughed Athene, “I’d much rather read a good book.”

As Athene laughed, her eyes lit up, and Anthony noticed that there was a melodic Welsh tone to her accent.

“A girl after your own heart Tony,” chuckled Nick as they dropped off Athene’s trunk.

They had arrived in a small dormitory with five beds, dressers and desks. All five of the beds were made up with light pink sheets and the window looked out over the grounds.

“See look you wont be alone,” said Nick cheerfully as they left Athene’s trunk by one of the spare beds, “there’s going to be five of you.”

Athene seemed to cheer up immensely at this thought.

Nick and Anthony turned around to start fetching the rest of the luggage, and Athene came skipping after them.

“Don’t you want to unpack?” asked Nick.

“Oh there’s plenty of time for that,” shrugged Athene, “you helped me with your luggage, so now I’m going to help you with all of yours.”

Mark was walking backwards carrying half of his trunk, and he nearly crashed into Athene.

“Watch where you’re going Marky!” said Simon shaking his head as they walked past.

Nick and Anthony carried Nicks trunk up to the Upper Fifth dorm followed by Athene with his hand luggage, before they then carried Anthony’s trunk up to his dorm, Athene following juggling Anthony’s day bag and tuck box and even Mark’s guitar.

The Upper Thirds boys dorm was opposite the girls dorm, and was exactly the same, apart from it had ten beds and blue sheets, and had a different view out the window.

“Hey thanks!” beamed Mark taking his guitar from Athene.

He lay down on his bed and started tuning his guitar, his unpacking forgotten.

Athene knelt down by Anthony’s trunk and helped him unpack all his things carefully.

They unpacked all the uniforms and sports kit into the wardrobe and then they hit the books.

“Swallows and Amazons!” breathed Athene.

“I’ve got the full set at home,” beamed Anthony.

Athene started to arrange the books neatly at the back of his desk.

“What’s this?” asked Athene picking up The Hobbit.

“That’s The Hobbit,” said Anthony, “it’s amazing.”

“It’s an adventure story in a fantasy world with dwarves and elves and dragon and of course hobbits.”

“Wow,” exclaimed Athene.

Books were extremely short supply, because of rationing. The war had ended seven years ago, but because of paper rationing new books were still hard to come by.

“Could I borrow this at some point?”

“Sure, I already know it off by heart.”

“Mark, Tony,” said Mr Pennington poking his head around the dorm door, “we’ve got to meet up with Mr Mitchell before I go.”

“Oh yeah that’s right!” said Mark remembering as he threw the guitar down on the bed as he leapt up.

Anthony and Athene had just finished unpacking and organising Anthony’s books on his desk.

Anthony quickly slid his tuck box under his bed before shutting his trunk.

Athene looked slightly nervous for a minute and was biting her lip.

“Can I can come with you?” she asked worried that the answer might be no.

“Of course dear,” said Mr Pennington smiling as they left the dorm.

Athene’s face split into a huge grin and practically skipped downstairs with the others.

Mr Mitchell’s office and rooms were on the first floor of the house along with the three common rooms.

Athene stopped skipping however when they reached the closed office door. She gulped slightly.

“You do it,” whispered Mark nudging his brother.

“Why should I do it?” asked Anthony confused.

“Because you’re the teachers pet,” smirked Mark.

“I’m not!” protested Anthony.

“Oh for heavens sake!” muttered Mr Pennington before knocking on the office door.

“Come in!” called Mr Mitchell.

Mr Pennington opened the door and went in through the door leaving the three terrified first years in the corridor.

“Hello Mr Mitchell,” chuckled Mr Pennington, “I’ve got three petrified new students out here for you.”

“Hello Brian!” said Mr Mitchell jovially getting up from the desk and shaking Mr Pennington’s hand and then coming out of the office.

“Now then you two must be Mark and Anthony,” said Mr Mitchell with his hands in jacket pocket.

“Well come in, come in.”

Anthony, Athene and Mark looked at each other nervously before walking into the office and sitting down at the desk.

“I don’t know why you look like rabbits caught in a trap, unless your brothers have been telling horror stories about me. Which I assure you are all rubbish.”

“Well most of them at least,” he added as an afterthought.

Mr Mitchell was a fairly cheerful man, with warm brown eyes and dark brown hair. He didn’t tend to wear a suit jacket, but usually wore a warm jumper over his shirt and tie instead. Although the students tended to refer to him as Old Mitch, Anthony noticed that Mr Mitchell didn’t look much more than thirty.

“Let me see,” he muttered, “you’re Mark.”

“Yes you must be,” he chuckled, “you’ve got a look of devilish glee in your eyes like your brother Simon used to.”

“Guilty as charged sir,” said Mark warming up to Mr Mitchell slightly.

“Which means, you must be Anthony, always got your head stuck in a book.”

“And my first girl!” beamed Mr Mitchell.

“But where are your parents? Did they have to go back early?”

“Um no sir,” said Athene riffling in her blazer pocket and fishing out a letter.

“My Dad wrote this for you last week,” she said handing him the letter.

Mr Mitchell opened the letter and scanned it quickly.

“So, you’re Athene Richards,” said Mr Mitchell putting the letter away.

“Captain Richards got called back early, then did he?”

“Yes sir,” muttered Athene pulling at the end of one of her plaits, “Malaya sir.”

“Well don’t worry young lady, we’re going to take good care of you,” he said smiling at her warmly.

“Now then,” he said, “I’m not just going to be your house master which means you can come to me if you’ve got any problems, but I’m also going to be your Latin tutor.”

“Any of you three taken Latin before?”

They all shook their heads.

“Well don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it,” said Mr Mitchell, “we’ll be starting off at square one anyway.”

“Any questions?”

“Is it true that there’s loads of school shows and concerts?” asked Mark.

“Yes that is true,” chuckled Mr Mitchell, “auditions for the Autumn term play will be next week, there’ll also be auditions for the school choir, and at the end of term there’ll be the house Christmas entertainments.”

“Brilliant!” said Mark grinning madly.

“Go on get on with you,” said Mr Mitchell shaking his head and laughing, “you’ve got unpacking to do.”

They walked out of the office and Mr Pennington looked at his two sons.

“Right behave yourselves,” he said giving them both a hug, “I mean you Mark!”

“Yes Dad,” groaned Mark.

“I’ll see you at half term.”  
“Bye Dad!” said Anthony as they waved him goodbye from the driveway.

They headed back up to the dorms where three new boys had arrived, Malcom Lloyd and Rupert Smith who were chatting as they unpacked, and Harry Knowles who had placed his trunk by the bed opposite Anthony’s.

“Hello!” said Harry holding out his hand.

Harry had blonde hair and grey blue eyes.

“I’m Harry, Harry Knowles.”

Anthony felt slightly affronted, he wasn’t used to such a formal introduction from a boy his own age.

“Anthony Pennington,” said Anthony somewhat awkwardly.

“I’m Athene,” beamed Athene waving.

“This schools great isn’t it?” asked Harry as he started to unpack, “all the masters seem so friendly!”

Mark took a deep breath and exhaled as he looked at his trunk which he hadn’t even started to unpack, and then shrugged and picked his guitar back up off the bed.

“Hey Athene,” offered Anthony, “want me to help you unpack?”

“Sure,” beamed Athene.

When they got through to the girls dorm, there was two girls who had taken the two beds by the windows. Elizabeth and Lucy seemed to have known each other for years and were chatting away merrily. 

It didn’t take them long to unpack all Athene’s school things, under her uniforms came a large quilt which was carefully folded but also seemed to be slightly lumpy.

“Be careful with that,” said Athene as Anthony lifted it out of the trunk.

Athene carefully unfolded the quilt which was made up tiny squares from scrap material. In the quilt was several photograph frames.

“Granny wrapped them in the quilt so the glass wouldn’t break,” explained Athene as she sighed in relief, that the photographs were alright.

She placed the quilt on top of her bed before setting up the photographs on her desk. There was about five in total. 

One showed a young couple on their wedding day, they were smiling brightly, and the young man was in uniform.

There were several photos of Athene at varying ages with her grandparents which sometimes her father was also in.

In the last photo, Captain Richards wasn’t in uniform but was wearing an old rugby top and a pair of shorts and was laughing merrily. He was preparing to throw a rugby ball to Athene who had been lifted in the air by two of his friends to catch the ball. 

“Grandpa took that one,” said Athene as she noticed which photograph Anthony was looking at.

“It was only taken two weeks ago.”

“You play rugby?” asked Anthony with interest.

“Am I Welsh?” asked Athene with hands on her hips.

“Enough said,” chuckled Anthony.

They unpacked Athene’s books from her trunk and lined them up on the desk. They included Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, and a book called Legendary Tales from Wales’ Past. All of the books looked like they had been well read.

As they finished setting up the last books on the desk, a tall gangly girl with short mousy brown hair came charging into the dorm followed by two older boys who were heaving her trunk.

“Just shove it down there,” she shrugged casually as she dumped her other bags by one of the spare beds.

“Right you are Charlie.”

The two boys put down the trunk and left their sister to settle in.

“Hi I’m Charlie Mackenzie,” she said.

“Athene,” said Athene waving back at her.

“That’s a strange name,” said Charlie abruptly.

“And Charlie’s not normally a girl’s name,” returned Athene.

“It’s Charlotte really,” she groaned, “but the only person who calls me that is my Mum.”

“So why did you get sent to this mad house?”

“Well my Dads in the army,” said Athene.

“No not the mad house in general,” corrected Charlie, “but this particular one.”

“Near military bases I suppose,” shrugged Athene.

“Oh,” nodded Charlie, “well my older brothers go here, so it just made sense. My Dad’s a doctor in the village. Mum tried to persuade him to send me to a girl’s school, but if St Christopher’s is good enough for the boys, it was good enough for me!”

As Charlie rambled on, Elizabeth and Lucy had gone to and explore the Common Room, and a girl with a sheet of waist length white blonde hair came into the dorm her parents carrying all her luggage.

“We’ll see you at half term alright darling?” said Mrs Fforbes Hamilton tears streaming down her face as she gave her daughter a crushing hug.

“I’ll be fine Mummy,” said Julie, “give Bunty a kiss from me!”

Mr and Mrs Fforbes Hamilton left before her mother started crying again.

“Tony!” Julie half squealed throwing herself in for a hug.

“It’s great to see you!”

“I only saw you yesterday,” stammered Anthony as Julie half crushed him.

Athene looked very confused and slightly upset. She had thought Anthony was her friend and now here was this new girl throwing herself at him like they’d known each other hteir whole lives.

“Athene,” chuckled Anthony, “this is Julie, she’s our next-door neighbour back home. Julie this is Athene Richards, and Charlie Makenzie.”

“Oh of course!” beamed Athene in a small amount of relief, “Anthony told me about you.”

Mark leapt in front of the open door to the girl’s door.

“Its Ginger Rogers!” he called flamboyantly.

“And Fred Astaire!” giggled Julie spinning over to him and giving him a hug.

“I thought I heard your voice,” chuckled Mark.

“How goes the unpacking Marky?” asked Nick who had come to check on his younger brothers.

Mark smiled at his brother with a slightly mischievous grin on his face.

“Less of the Fred Astaire and more of the unpacking mate.”

“I can do that anytime,” groaned Mark, “me and Julie want to explore.”

“You know you’ve got a point!” beamed Charlie leaving her own unpacking as the three of them raced off down the corridor before Nick could get another word in.

“You two don’t want to join them?” asked Nick.

Athene and Anthony had both finished all their unpacking now.

“I don’t really want to explore,” shrugged Anthony, “the only fun in that would be finding somewhere quiet to read.”

“I think there’s something you two might want to see,” said Nick as inspiration hit him.

Anthony and Athene looked at each other confused as they followed Nick.

“Can’t you give us a clue?” asked Anthony as they headed over to the main school building.

“Have patience little brother, we’ll be there soon.”

Nick opened the door to one of the rooms on the ground floor and Anthony and Athene went in after him.

“Woah!” breathed Anthony.

“Crikey!” exclaimed Athene.

The room was full of shelf upon shelf of books, they reached the ceiling. Old books with yellowed pages, new books with crisp white pages, thin paperbacks, huge hardbacks. Anthony was used to lots of books around the house, with his father running a publishing company, but he’d never seen quite so many at once.

“It’s only a library,” said Nick who somehow couldn’t help himself but laughing.

“You might think it’s only a library,” muttered Anthony as his eyes looked up to the top shelf, “but to me this is a room full of hidden treasures!”

“Nick?” asked Athene, “you don’t think there’s any Latin books in here do you?”

“Latin books?” asked Nick incredulously.

“Why do you want Latin books?”

“Mr Mitchell brought it up earlier,” said Athene.

“We’ve never done it before,” added Anthony, “what if we’re really behind?”

“You’ll start with the beginning,” said Nick reassuringly, “but if you’re both worried I’ll see if I can find you something.”

Nick headed into the library properly and found a tall bookshelf. The top shelves were full of battered spare Latin textbooks for various levels, the bottom shelves had books on Greek and Roman mythology.

“Here you go,” said Nick passing Athene and Anthony a couple of books on Greek mythology each.

They checked the books out from the library, and they went back to their dorm. 

They barley had enough time to drop off their books in the dorm when it was time for tea. 

After tea Anthony and Athene lay on top of Athene’s bed reading. They could hear the rest of the Upper Third playing with the gramophone in the Common Room downstairs.

Athene and Anthony were sharing a book and just reading about the birth of the Greek God of lightning Zeus, when Mark came running into the dorm quickly pursued by Harry, Julie and a soaking wet but laughing Charlie.

Charlie was soaked to the skin and still fully dressed, but she didn’t seem to care.

“What in the world?” muttered Anthony looking up.

“Harry bet I wouldn’t go in the swimming pool,” laughed Charlie.

“I didn’t mean fully dressed!” said Harry who was also laughing.

“Then you should have said so!” said Charlie.

“You didn’t give him a chance,” chortled Mark, “you’d already dived in!”

Charlie was riffling through her still packed trunk for a pair of pyjamas and a towel.

“I don’t care,” shrugged Charlie beaming, “it was fun!”

Charlie headed off to bathroom to go and get changed still laughing.

“Have Fred and Ginger found somewhere to practise their dancing yet?” asked Athene.

“We don’t need to find somewhere,” said Julie.

“We just dance everywhere,” said Mark as he did a perfect pirouette. 

“Show off!” coughed Harry.

“See you two have found the library though,” said Harry looking at the stack of books on Athene’s table.

“You got a problem with that Harry?” asked Mark looking at Harry.

Mark had been more than used to sticking up for his brother at their primary school. Mark and Anthony might be very different people, but twins have a bond that can never be broken.

“On the contrary,” said Harry, “I wish I read more.”

“Leave off!” called Charlie as she came back in, “I’d much rather live life rather than read all the time.”

At that moment the bell went off, lights out was in fifteen minutes.

“Oh bugger!” muttered Harry.

“Do you mind if I borrow a couple of these?” asked Anthony indicating the books still on the desk.

“Feel free,” shrugged Athene as she kept reading, she was already in her pyjamas.

Lucy and Elizabeth came back to the dorm to get ready for bed.

“See you in the morrow fair ladies,” said Mark bowing slightly as he left the room backwards.

“Goodnight Mark,” said Julie as she shut the door after him.

“You’ll get used to Mark and his strange ways,” said Julie as she pulled on her nightgown.

Athene hoped that Julie was right, and that she would get used to Mark and his over the top manner. She had already learnt one thing, St Christopher’s was hardly a normal bob standard boarding school, and one thing was clear, it was going to be a very interesting seven years!


	3. Chapter 3

Anthony stretched slightly as he woke up. He’d always been an early riser, but was used to sharing a room with his brother.

He pulled on his glasses and checked his watch. Half past five.

He went around to the window and checked under the curtain and saw that the sun was very slowly beginning to rise.

Anthony smiled slightly as hitched himself up onto the windowsill and closed the curtain behind him. The windowsill was thin, but not so thin that he couldn’t curl up properly to read.

He’d just reached the part in the book where the infant version of the God Hermes had stolen his brother Apollo’s sacred cattle, when there was the sound of a loud bell again.

He could hear a fair amount of grumbling and groaning from his dormmates as they all woke up.

“Where’s Tony?” muttered Harry as he brushed sleep out of his eyes.

“Check behind the curtain,” mumbled Mark before putting his pillow over his head to try and get a few more minutes sleep.

Malcom, who had one of the beds behind the window, opened the curtain and found Anthony with his head stuck in a book.

“How did you know?” asked Malcom astounded as Anthony got down from the windowsill.

“Intuition?” suggested Mark as he grudgingly got out of bed.

“I’ve shared a room with Tony for eleven years, I know him too well.”

Anthony got dressed and did up his tie, which he checked quickly in the bathroom mirror after he did his teeth.

“Come on Tony!” Mark called, “we’ll be late!”

It seemed a bit strange Anthony being the one trailing behind for once, but he wanted to make sure that he had his uniform on just right.

Anthony ran slightly to catch up with the others.

After breakfast they had to go to the welcome assembly, after which they were joined with Mr Thomas’ house.

There was twenty five of them in total in Upper Third Alpha and the morning was fairly normal, they had Maths with Mr Thomas in the morning and then English, and Science before lunch.

After lunch the whole year gathered on the games pitch. The boys were wearing rugby jerseys and games shorts, as there were only five girls in the whole school, for now the girls could wear whatever they wanted for games practise.

Charlie was wearing the same as the boys, she was wearing a pair of her brother’s old games shorts and another ones old rugby jersey. She looked in her element. Athene was wearing a Wales rugby top which was a little bit big on her and a pair of shorts. Lizzie, Lucy, and Julie were wearing games tunics.

“Right!” called Mr Davies.

“Who here has played any rugby before?”

Everyone looked around nervously, a couple of the boys, put their hands in the air as well as Athene.

“Don’t worry you’ll soon get the hang of it,” said Mr Davies.

“Ok then, ladies, you’ve got a few options. The first option is that you run around the pitch for an hour.”

The girls looked seriously unimpressed.

“Option number two,” chuckled Mr Davies at the girls looks of horror, “is to play a bit of rugby with the boys. Don’t worry we’re only going to be playing touch for now, no contact.”

Charlie’s face lit up like a lightbulb.

“Option number three, is you lot play some netball or something on your own.”

Julie put her hand in the air.

“Isn’t there a fourth option?”

“You can watch today if you want and decide later,” said Mr Davies.

Rupert put his own hand in the air.

“Do we get that option?” asked Rupert eagerly.

“No,” said Mr Davies abruptly, “you lot are going to learn some rugby!”

“Right one lap of the pitch for a warmup!”

The boys somewhat grudgingly began to run around the pitch led by Harry and Charlie, Julie Lizzie and Lucy trailed on the end but still finished their lap.

Julie, Lizzie and Lucy watched from the side of the pitch whilst Mr Davies taught the others how to do passing drills.

“Ok you lot, spread out in a straight line down the pitch!” he bellowed.

The forty or so first years spread out down one side of the pitch.

Mr Davies ran down to the oppsite end of the pitch.

“The first you’ve got to learn about Rugby!” he called loudly, “is how to shout!”

“Why?” yelled Mark.

“So that I can hear you from the other side of the pitch, a rugger pitch is huge.”

“When you want to be passed the ball you’ve got to yell, yell louder than anyone else on the pitch.”

“Ready ready up!” he yelled his voice echoing around the pitch.

“Now it’s your turn, give me your worst.”

“Aren’t we going to disturb people in class?” asked Harry.

“They’re used to it,” smirked Mr Davies.

“Now give me your worst!”

“Ready, ready up!” called the first years half-heartedly.

“Not loud enough,” scoffed Mr Davies, “nowhere near!”

“Ready ready up!” they yelled at the top of the voices.

Several of the older boys leaned out the classroom window from the main school and replied “Up!”

“I think you got it that time Dragon!” called Simon out of the window.

Clearly this was an annual event, and the older students were listening out for them.

“Get back to class Pennington or I’ll have to take that badge away!”

Simon beamed at him before ducking back in the window to get back to Physics class.

Mr Davies came running back towards the first years.

“Now that we’ve dealt with that, we can get to business.”

“Rule number one, never pass the ball forwards, always pass it backwards.”

“This means, that when you run, you have to leave a gap between you and the person next to you so they can pass backwards, and then you pass backwards and so on.”

“We’ll start of by practising with walking the passing drill.”

Mr Davies threw the ball down to Athene at one end of the line who caught the ball easily.

“If you want the ball, all you have to do is call up.”

Mr Davies nodded at Athene who took a deep breath.

“Ready, ready up!” she bellowed, before walking in front a bit and passing the ball back to Charlie.

Anthony had never heard Athene shout so loudly. She clearly had different voices for on and off the pitch.

The practised this walking for a while, before Mr Davies split them into four groups and they practised the passing drills one group at a time, at a run.

At the end of the hour Athene and Charlie were completely covered in mud and exhausted but had proved that they could easily keep up with the boys.

“It’s a shame I can’t sneak you two onto the ruddy team,” sighed Mr Davies as they all headed back inside after practise, “you’d make great wingers.”

“Couldn’t we just cut my hair a bit more,” asked Charlie, “we could get away with it.”

“We might have been to get away with it,” chuckled Mr Davies.

“Until you started to develop,” sniggered Harry.

“Ugghh!” groaned Charlie in disgust.

“Go on get cleaned up, if you lot are late for Latin, Mitchell will have my guts for garters.”

“Yes sir,” giggled Athene and Charlie as they ran in for a quick shower to get rid of the mud. The other three girls hadn’t joined in today, so they weren’t dirty at all.

They arrived at Mr Mitchell’s classroom just in time for class to start.

“I heard you lot out on the pitch,” chuckled Mr Mitchell as they all sat down.

“Do you think we were loud enough sir?” asked Harry.

“Well I wouldn’t want to run into you lot on a dark night,” said Mr Mitchell, “you’d scare the ruddy daylights out of me.”

“Is that a good thing sir?” asked Lucy.

“For rugby?” he asked, “surprisingly yes.”

“But on with the Latin, has anyone done any before?”

No one put their hands up, Mark looked around the room and put his hand up.

“Yes?”

“My older brother Simon taught me something.”

“Go on,” said Mr Mitchell more than slightly wary.

Mark beamed and stood up before clearing his throat loudly to recite.

“Roman is a dead language, as dead as dead can be. It’s killed off all the Romans, and now it’s killing me!”

He gave a dramatic groan and clutched onto his chest at the end of the poem.

The classroom was full of laughter.

“Yes yes thank you Mark,” muttered Mr Mitchell, “you can sit back down now please.”

Mark turned around and gave his classmates a brief bow before sitting back down next to Julie.

“What Mark said though is true, the Romans are all dead, and have been for well over a thousand years. Can you think of anyone who still uses Latin on a regular basis now?”

Athene put her hand in the air.

“The Roman Catholics sir,” said Athene, “they use Latin in their church services.”

“The is correct,” said Mr Mitchell, “in fact in Vatican City where the Pope himself lives Latin is the first language instead of its more modern counterpart Italian.”

“Any other uses you can think of?”

Charlie shoved her hand in the air but didn’t wait to be called on, excited to actually know an answer.

“My Dad told me that a lot of medical terminology comes from Latin.”

“That’s also correct, particularly the body parts, if anyone of you here want to go into the medical profession, Latin could be extremely useful.”

“Today we are going to learn two verbs, one regular and one irregular.”

“Esse,” he muttered as he wrote out the verb on the blackboard, “To Be.”

“And Amo, to love.”

There was a large amount of giggling and chuckling around the class.

“Yes, I know it’s very amusing,” sighed Mr Mitchell, “but the verb to love is one of the best to start off with as it is a commonly used verb with regular endings.”

The classroom was full of sniggering as the room full of eleven-year olds copied down the verb to love.

Once they had copied them down, they went over the verbs and the different endings. Then Mr Mitchell leant against his desk at the front of the classroom as he told them all the story of how the Greek’s thought the world had formed out of chaos.

“Next lesson, you’re going to find out what Cronos did to his terrible father Uranus.”

“For homework, could you all please learn those first two verbs, Anthony, Athene could you stay behind please.”

Most of the class left, apart from Mark. Charlie, Harry and Julie were waiting for him by the doorway.

“You going to be ok Tony?” asked Mark.

“Yeah I’ll be fine,” shrugged Anthony.

“Come on Fred,” called Julie, “lets get some practise in before tea.”

“Coming Ginger,” said Mark giving his brother a quick pat on the back before leaving the classroom.

“Have we done something wrong sir?” asked Athene nervously.

“On the contrary,” said Mr Mitchell sitting down on a desk nearer them, “I believe I might have terrified both of you yesterday.”

“What do you mean sir?” asked Anthony.

“Your brother Nick came to talk to me this morning, told me you were both nervous about starting Latin. As you can see, you’re at the exact same point as all the others.”

“Oh we weren’t nervous sir,” stammered Athene.

“More just curious, at what you were so enthusiastic about,” said Anthony.

“Nick told me you two got some Greek mythology books out, had a chance to look through yet?”

“Oh they’re fascinating, could hardly put it down,” enthused Anthony.

“I hardly knew that I was a Greek Goddess,” giggled Athene, “let alone that I emerged fully grown from Zeus’ head!”

“So what did you think of your first day?”

“Excellent,” beamed Athene.

“She’s the best rugby player in the year,” said Anthony.

“Really?” asked Mr Mitchell clearly impressed.

“I’ve just got a bit more experience,” said Athene somewhat shyly.

“Good, now go get on with learning those verbs.”

“But we already know them!” exclaimed Anthony, Athene nodding on agreement.

“Do you now?” he asked curiously.

They looked at each other before nodding and beginning to chant as they had done in class.

“Sum, es, est, sumus, estis, sunt. Amo, amas, amat, amamus, amatis, amant.”

“Well done!” said Mr Mitchell smiling, “go on, it’ll be tea soon. If you don’t show up soon your friends will start looking for you.”

They all had a quick tea, which was followed by an hours Prep. It was only five o’clock and it was the first day, there were no clubs tonight.

“Hey Athens,” called Harry as they dropped off their bags, “could we practise a few rugby drills?”

“Alright,” beamed Athene.

“I’m going to have to get muddy aren’t I?” asked Julie somewhat disgusted.

“Would you rather Athens teach you how to catch a ball, or run laps of the pitch for three hours a week?”

Julie was quiet for a moment as if considering her two options. 

“Fine!” she sighed.

“Come on Ginger,” chuckled Mark as they pulled on their trainers.

They all pulled off their ties, jumpers and blazers, and Athene borrowed a rugby ball from Simon.

The six of them chucked the ball around until they got the drill right.

“Hey Athene,” asked Charlie, “could you show me to do that lift like in the photo?”

“Do somebody say lift?” asked Julie excitedly, her attention being drawn away from cloud watching.

“It’s not a dance lift stupid,” snorted Harry.

“Actually, they’re not all that different,” said Athene.

Mark and Harry got up, and Athene showed them what to do as she stood between them.

“This is called a line-out; it’s used sometimes if the ball goes offside.”

They both crouched down and grabbed her thighs, one from the back the other from the front, she should have been wearing shorts, but it didn’t really matter as they were only practising. 

“So little jump, big jump and on the second jump you lift me in there, and Anthony throws over the ball.”

“Little jump, big jump,” nodded Mark.

“See, it’s just like a dance lift,” insisted Julie.

“You ready Athens?”

“Born ready,” beamed Athene.

They demonstrated the line out, and she caught the ball instantly.

Then Charlie had a go.

“I feel like I’m flying!” exclaimed Charlie holding her arms out like wings as the boys lifted her up.

“I love rugby!” she screamed.

“Glad to hear it!” laughed Athene as Charlie was put back on the ground.


	4. Chapter 4

Without meaning too, within the first few days of term the Upper Third form in Mr Mitchell’s house had formed into two friendship groups. Anthony, Mark, Athene, Julie, Harry and Charlie had formed one group, and the other one consisted of Lucy, Lizzie and the other seven boys.

On Wednesday afternoon there were try-outs for the school rugby teams. Harry got picked to be a winger for the house and the school under thirteens. Charlie tried to try out for the teams, and although Mr Mitchell had said they would be honoured to have her on the team, if he played her in a match she might have got hurt.

Mark and Anthony hadn’t even bothered trying out, Anthony wasn’t much one for sports himself, but didn’t mind cheering from the side-lines, Mark though had been far more looking forward to Thursday evening.

After prep on Thursday evening, Mark and Julie were stretching each other’s legs on the floor, whilst also warming up their voices.

Tonight, was the auditions for the school choir, and the house play. There would be a school musical later in the year, but in the Autumn term the four houses put on smaller plays individually.

Also, that evening was the first meeting of the school military cadets of the year.

Charlie and Harry were both joining the cadets and were trying on their uniforms.

“Your hairs wrong,” muttered Athene not even looking up from her book.

“How do you know that?” snapped Charlie turning on her.

Athene bit her lip slightly.

“Sorry, I’m a bit nervous,” said Charlie, getting her temper back.

“It’s ok,” shrugged Athene walking over to Charlie with a box of hairpins.

“I know because I grew up on an army base. The number of times I’ve helped a new female recruit fix their hair; I can’t count.”

Athene pulled Charlie’s short hair gently out of its usual ponytail and redid it in a neat bun and then helped her fix her hat.

“Will I do now?” asked Charlie nervously looking in the mirror.

“Perfect,” beamed Athene giving her friend a hug.

“Good luck!” called Anthony as the other four left for their extracurricular activities.

Anthony looked around the dorm and sat down on the floor leaning against Athene’s bed. All he could hear was the radio on from one of the Common Rooms. He sighed contently and smiled slightly.

“What?” asked Athene laughing slightly as she got out some writing paper at her desk.

“Just listening,” he muttered, “to the quiet.”

Athene giggled slightly before going back to her writing.

Anthony listened to the soft scratching of Athene’s fountain pen mingling with the radio downstairs.

“It’s strange isn’t it?” muttered Anthony, “you don’t realise quite how loud your friends are until they go away for a bit.”

“Hmm,” agreed Athene.

“What you writing?”

“I’m writing to my family, Dad and Grandpa will be pleased to hear about my rugby, and Granny’s been worried about me making friends. Also, Mr Davies asked me to congratulate my Gran on her Welsh Cakes. Apparently, they’re better than his mam used to make.”

“Your family sound great,” beamed Anthony.

“I haven’t got any grandparents, just us boys, Dad and Mrs Brown the housekeeper.”

“What about your Mum?” asked Athene.

“Car accident,” sighed Anthony, “when I was five.”

“Oh,” muttered Athene as he finished her letters.

She carefully addressed the two envelopes, one to Major and Mrs Richards, Pembrokeshire Military Base, Wales, and the other simply Captain Daniel Richards, Malaya.

“Do you ever miss your Dad when he’s away?” asked Anthony.

“Of course I do,” chuckled Athene, “he’s my Da, I love him. I’m just used to it I suppose, it’s always been this way. If I worry about Dad or Grandpa when they’re away I’d just be worrying all the time.”

“You’ve got a point there,” admitted Anthony, “what about your Mum?”

Athene bit her lip slightly as she did up the envelopes.

“My Mum died in labour,” she mumbled.

“Oh,” said Anthony awkwardly.

“Sorry I brought it up, I know what it’s like.”

“It’s alright.”

Anthony got up from where he was leaning against the bed and went through to his dorm quickly.

“I said I’d lend this to you,” said Anthony handing over his copy of The Hobbit, “sorry I forgot earlier.”

“Oh thanks, Anthony!” exclaimed Athene giving him a huge hug and diving into the book.

Anthony and Athene had known each other for nearly five days now and had a similar reading speed so were able to read over each other’s shoulder and share books.

When the other four got back from their drill practice and auditions Athene and Anthony were sprawled out on the floor of the dorm.

“Hey Tony Athens,” said Harry as he came into the dorm.

“How was the Cadet meeting?” asked Anthony.

“It was good,” said Charlie, “didn’t really do much, had an inspection and went over what the Cadets do, it was a bit boring really.”

“But next week, we’re going to get to try the obstacle course,” beamed Harry.

“Minus target practise,” said Charlie somewhat disappointed.

“They were hardly going to let us use a gun before we’re properly trained in safety Charlie,” said Harry.

“I know, I know,” she mumbled, “safety first.”

“How did your auditions go?” asked Athene.

“Great!” beamed Mark.

“The choir mistress told us we should try out for solos for the Christmas Carol service,” said Julie proudly.

“No surprises there,” said Anthony.

“What did you two do?”

“I wrote some letters home,” said Athene.

“And we talked about family,” said Anthony.

“That can’t have taken very long,” said Julie under her breathe.

“I’m sorry Jules what was that?” asked Mark.

“Well you know it’s true,” said Julie.

“You told me yourself! Her parents couldn’t even be bothered to drop her off!”

Athene got up from where she was sitting on the floor, she was starting to shake slightly.

“Julie,” said Anthony quietly, “I think you’ve said enough.”

“And look at those photographs,” she scoffed, once Julie had started on something, she didn’t tend to stop.

“Do you see darling Mummy in any of those? Probably had enough of her and ran off.”

“Julie,” stammered Anthony, “you don’t know all the facts!”

Athene was shaking her head frantically, tears running down her cheeks. She rushed out of her dorm before Anthony could even stop her.

“You evil spiteful witch!” screamed Charlie.

Julie had been smiling slightly smugly and didn’t notice Charlie throwing herself at her. Charlie tacked Julie to the floor and started attacking her, pulling at her hair and shouting at her.

“How dare you!” she screamed.

“It’s true though!” shouted Julie trying to get Charlie off her.

“You still shouldn’t have said it!”

Julie was frantically trying to get Charlie off her, but Charlie had had four older brothers growing up, she could more than handle herself in a fight.

“Charlie! Stop!” said Harry firmly as Mark and Harry pulled her off Julie.

They had to hold the squirming Charlie back from attacking Julie again. Julie was in hysterics on the floor.

“Let me at her!” shouted Charlie trying to fight off both Harry and Mark at once.

“What is going in here?” said a voice from the doorway.

The screaming and shouting stopped as the five heads turned to the corridor.

Mr Mitchell was standing framed in the doorway, his arm around Athene who was still crying slightly, his usual jovial expression had been replaced by a look of deepest disappointment.

Charlie stopped squirming and suddenly her body went limp, Julie stopped crying and looked at Mr Mitchell in half relief half shock.

“My office all of you,” he hissed, “now!”

There were no arguments, Julie got up from the floor and stared down at her shoes.

Anthony put his arm around Athene, and they all followed Mr Mitchell down to his office.

“Sit,” he said firmly.

Athene, Anthony, Charlie and Julie sat down, and Mark and Harry stood behind them.

“Will somebody care to explain, what exactly is going on here please?” sighed Mr Mitchell.

Anthony looked around and noticed that no one else was offering to speak up.

“Um well sir, Athene and I were hanging out in her dorm this evening, the others were busy with auditions and Cadet meetings.”

“Hmm,” muttered Mr Mitchell.

“Athene was writing home and we started to talk about family. When the others came back, Julie was surprised that we had been talking about family as she didn’t think that Athene’s family cared about her particularly much.”

“Thank you, Anthony,” said Mr Mitchell running his fingers through his short hair.

“Julie, what made you think this way about Athene’s family?”

“Well,” said Julie awkwardly, “Mark told me that her parents hadn’t come to drop her off on the first day, they’d sent someone to do it for them, and there aren’t any pictures of Athene’s Mother apart from the wedding photo.”

Mark bit his lip, that he was even partly involved in any of this.

“Julie,” said Mr Mitchell shaking his head, “you have got to learn to know the full facts before you make any assumptions!”

Athene was still sobbing, and Mr Mitchell passed her a handkerchief.

“The reason why Captain Richards couldn’t drop her off at school last week is because he got called back to Malaya a month early.”

Julie’s mouth opened in a slightly shocked expression.

“And as for Athene’s mother,” sighed Mr Mitchell, “she has been dead for eleven years.”

“Oh,” said Julie in realisation. 

The reason why Athene’s parents hadn’t dropped her off wasn’t that they didn’t care, but because they couldn’t.

“Then?” 

“Then Athens ran from the room in tears,” said Harry.

“And literally ran into me in the corridor,” nodded Mr Mitchell.

“And the screaming?” he asked raising his eyebrows.

“Charlie threw herself at Julie and attacked her,” said Mark.

“Eventually we managed to pull Charlie off her,” said Harry, “which is when you arrived.”

“Right,” said Mr Mitchell.

“Julie, Charlie, you will both be attending detention tomorrow evening after Prep.”

They both looked outraged.

“But sir!” protested Charlie, “she insulted Athene!”

“She attacked me!” said Julie starting to sob again.

“Quiet both of you!” he said firmly.

“You will both be receiving detention,” he repeated.

“Julie, for insulting Athene and upsetting her, Charlie for attacking another student.”

“But sir!” Charlie but in.

“I don’t care!”

“I don’t care if you were provoked or not. Fighting is never right Charlie. Anymore protests and you can have detention on Saturday evening too.”

Charlie’s mouth closed shut very quickly.

“I’m glad we’ve got that sorted,” he sighed after taking a deep breath.

“Light’s out is in ten minutes, get to bed, and if I hear even a squeak out of either of you before dawn, you’ll regret it.”

They all trudged up to their dorms none of them saying a word.

“See you tomorrow Athene,” said Anthony giving her a quick hug in the corridor between their two dorms.

Lucy and Lizzie were sat on Lucy’s bed as Lucy plaited Lizzie’s long hair.

“I’m sorry,” said Julie earnestly, “I didn’t know about your Mum.”

“And I should have known about your Dad,” she admitted somewhat foolishly.

“It’s alright,” muttered Athene.

Charlie sighed reluctantly.

“I’m sorry I attacked you,” she grumbled.

“It’s ok,” said Julie, “I kind of deserved it.”

“And I definitely need to learn to keep my temper,” said Charlie smiling slightly.


	5. Chapter 5

She was in the middle of a tropical forest. There were tall trees everywhere and the hot sun was streaming down on her back. She could hear loud birds calling out to each other. 

She turned a corner and came to a standstill.

There was man lying in the middle of the path, he was covered in blood and a machete stuck through his chest. His eyes were wide open but where still and lifeless like glass. He was dead.

“Agghhh!” screamed Athene waking up.

She was covered in sweat and was breathing heavily.

“Dad!” she screamed.

“What’s going on?” asked Lizzie drowsily as she woke up.

“Dad!” yelled Athene again.

“It’s one o’clock in the morning go back to sleep,” mumbled Julie.

“It’s Athene,” said Lizzie nervously getting out of bed, “there’s something wrong with her!”

“Dad!” Athene called yet again.

Julie pulled on her dressing gown and checked Athene’s forehead.

“She’s got a fever,” muttered Julie, “go and get Mitchell.”

Lizzie ran out of the dorm in her nightdress to go and find Mr Mitchell.

The other two girls had woken up and Charlie had gotten her torch out.

“What’s wrong?” asked Charlie sitting down on Athene’s bed with Julie.

But Athene didn’t hear her, she just stared right past them.

“Dad!” she called out again in desperation.

Lizzie came running back with Mr Mitchell and Matron.

“What happened?” asked Mr Mitchell.  
“We don’t know,” stammered Lizzie, “she just woke up screaming. I think she had a nightmare; she keeps on calling out for her Dad.”

“It’s alright dear,” said Matron sitting down on the bed as Julie and Charlie got up.

Matron brushed Athene’s fringe off her forehead so she could check her temperature.

Athene stopped muttering and looked Matron straight in the eye, before bursting into tears.

“It’s alright dear,” soothed Matron as Athene sobbed into her.

“Dad, he was dead,” sobbed Athene, “just lying there, dead!”

“I’m sure he’s fine Athene,” said Julie.

“He’s in Malaya! Anything could have happened!”

“They would have contacted you if there was anything wrong,” assured Charlie kneeling down at the end of the bed.

“But in the dream,” stammered Athene as she stopped sobbing, “I was in the jungle. The tropical jungle. Dad’s in the tropical jungle. What if it was real?”

“Athene,” said Mr Mitchell gently, “listen to me.”

“It was a dream. If anything does happen, we’ll deal with it when it does alright?”

Athene nodded slightly uncertain.

“Now dry those tears and get some sleep.”

Athene got back into bed, and the other four girls went back to sleep almost instantly. Athene found though that sleep evaded her, she was staring up at the ceiling, every time she closed her eyes, she would see her Dad smiling at her for a second, then she would see his dead body again.

The next morning, Athene went down for breakfast with large dark circles under her eyes.

It was mid November now, so everyone had settled into the school routine having been at St Christopher’s for over two months.

“There was quite a rucus in your dorm last night,” said Harry.

“Yeah what happened?” asked Mark excitedly.

“Athene had a nightmare,” said Charlie.

“Oh,” said Mark, almost disappointed that nothing more exciting had happened.

“Are you alright Athene?” asked Anthony putting an arm around her.

“Hmmm,” muttered Athene staring at her plate of toast.

“Eat up, you’ll feel better.”

Athene took a small bite of toast, but it turned to dust in her mouth. 

She pushed her plate of breakfast over to Harry and Charlie, who both shrugged and ate half her toast each.

Athene become much more withdrawn, she didn’t talk to anyone, hardly ate, and when she did sleep she had nightmares.

Anthony wasn’t particularly worried about this on the first day, but once this had been going on a week he became deeply worried for her friend.

“Athene for Gods sake eat something!” pleaded Charlie.

Athene was as pale as sheet, and ate a small spoonful of potatoes before putting her fork back down. She pushed her plate away again.

“If you don’t start eating soon Athens,” said Harry, “he and Charlie are going to get very fat!”

There was ghost of a smile on Athene’s face.

“That’s the smile we know,” beamed Mark, “now come on we’ve got double Latin!”

Latin was one of Athene’s favourite subjects. She enjoyed learning the language and the stories that Mr Mitchell told at the end of class each time were fascinating.

“They’ve got the auditions for solos in the Christmas concert tomorrow,” beamed Mark.

“Oh Tony, please help us practise, it’s much easier if we’re accompanied.”

“After Prep, maybe,” said Anthony.

“Cheers Tony!” beamed Mark.

At the end of prep though, Mr Mitchell came over to talk to them.

“Athene,” he said gently, “can you come with me for a moment?”

Athene looked slightly nervous but packed away her books.

“We’ll see you in the rehearsal room ok?” asked Anthony.

She gave Anthony a quick smile and followed Mr Mitchell from the classroom.


	6. Chapter 6

Anthony was sat at the piano stool accompanying Julie and Mark as they practised for the audition tomorrow.

“Do you want to try Once In Royal Jules?” asked Mark.

Julie nodded and Anthony began to play the opening notes as Julie prepared to sing.

Then Athene came bursting into the practise room, tears streaming down her cheeks.

She sat down in her usual place next to Anthony of the piano stool.

“Hey,” said Anthony turning away from the piano, “what’s up Athene?”

“Tony!” said Julie with her hands on her hips, “we’re in the middle of practising.”

“You can practise on your bloody own!” said Mark looking at Julie incredulously before going over to the piano where Athene was sitting.

“What happened?” asked Anthony putting an arm around her.

“The dreams,” she sobbed, “they came true!”

“What?” stammered Mark.

“There was a telegram,” she sobbed, “Grandpa got it this afternoon, Dad was killed fighting in Malaya.”

Julie’s mouth dropped open and she rushed over to give Athene a hug.

“I’m sorry Athene,” said Julie giving her a hug, “you must be so upset! And I was so horrible to you!”

“It’s alright,” stammered Athene as Anthony passed her a handkerchief.

Deciding that rehearsal was over for the night, they all headed back to the girls dorm. The girls dorm had in a way become the Common Room for their little group. 

Charlie and Harry were sat on the floor going through a magazine.

“What happened?” asked Harry.

“Athene’s Dad died,” said Mark, half of him still not believing it.

Anthony sat Athene down on her bed, and Athene pulled her knees into her chest. Anthony sat down at the end of her bed, and Mark and Julie flopped down on Julie’s bed

“What’s going to happen?” asked Charlie.

“I don’t know,” said Athene slightly tearily as she stopped sobbing, “Grandpa’s going to be here in the morning, I suppose he’ll decide.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Harry.

“Well I’ll have to go home for the memorial,” explained Athene, “but I don’t know about after that.”

“Oh God,” she muttered starting to get up off the bed, “I’ll have to pack for a few days.”

“Don’t worry,” said Julie getting up, “we’ll do that.”

Julie fetched out Athene’s small suitcase and started to pack carefully, enough things for a few days home.

“What’s going on?” asked Lucy as she and Lizzie came into the dorm to get ready for bed.

It must have been a very strange scene for the other two girls to walk into. The usually cheerful and somewhat eccentric group of friends were all looking miserable. 

Charlie and Artie were rushing around the room packing Athene’s bag with a spare uniform, nightdress, wash bag, and a plain black dress.

Athene had stopped crying but was looking somewhat dazed and had pulled her knees into her chest, her cheeks were blotchy and her eyes were red, so it was clear that she had been crying.

Anthony was polishing his glasses with his jumper, just to give him something to do. Mark and Harry were flopped down on top of Charlie’s bed, staring up at the ceiling expressionless.

None of them responded.

“Who died?” asked Lizzie.

Anthony put his glasses back on and rose his eyebrows at her.

“Athene’s Dad,” said Julie as she did up the suitcase.

Lizzie covered her mouth, and Lucy’s mouth dropped open in shock.

“I shouldn’t have said that,” muttered Lizzie, “I should have guessed.”

“It’s ok,” muttered Athene.

“The dreams!” exclaimed Lucy her eyes wide.

“Athene,” asked Anthony curiously, “do you think you can see the future?”

“No idea,” shrugged Athene, “I hope not.”

“Wouldn’t it be kind of exciting to know what’s coming though?” asked Charlie.

“Yeah, but it would make life less exciting too,” admitted Harry, “no surprises.”

“You’ve got point there Hazzer,” said Mark.

“Would you two mind moving?” asked Charlie with her hands on her hips as she moved over to her bed.

“At least budge up!”

Mark and Harry moved further down the bed still staring up at the ceiling.

“Um lights out in ten minutes,” called Mr Mitchell somewhat awkwardly from the doorway.

Mr Mitchell was acting as if it was a normal night, but tonight was anything but normal!

“Come on boys,” sighed Mr Mitchell, “you need to get to your own dorm.”

Anthony got off the end of Athene’s bed somewhat grudgingly.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” said Anthony giving her a quick hug.

Fortunately, tomorrow was Saturday so they didn’t have class.

“I’ll see you before you go home alright?”

“Ok,” muttered Athene pulling at the end of one of her plaits.

“Are you sure we can’t stay?” asked Mark sitting up, “just this once?”

“We want to support our friend!” agreed Harry.

“I’m sorry lads,” said Mr Mitchell, “move it.”

Mark and Harry left the room, muttering darkly.

“Try and get some sleep girls,” sighed Mr Mitchell before closing the door.

The five girls got changed into their pyjamas, Athene didn’t feel like sleeping.

“Athene, you look exhausted,” said Lizzie anxiously.

“You could try and sleep,” suggested Lucy, “the nightmares have stopped now that.”

Lucy finished awkwardly and looked slightly foolish.

“It’s ok Luc,” said Athene smiling slightly.

“I don’t know why but I’m just not tired, I’ll probably sleep in the car home tomorrow.”

“Well if you’re staying up, we’re staying up with you!” said Charlie.

They waited until Matron had come around to check that they had turned off the light and were all in bed. 

The second she had left however, Charlie leapt out of bed with a look of glee on her face.

Charlie and Lucy got their torches out, as they had had to turn off the light, and Julie helped Lizzie push Athene and Lizzie’s beds together.

“I think it’s high time we had our first all nighter!” beamed Charlie.

“Oh can we do each other’s hair?” asked Julie excitedly.

“And tell ghost stories,” said Charlie mischievously.

“And a midnight feast!” breathed Lizzie.

The five girls pooled together the last of their sweet rations and tuck, between the five of them there was a large assortment of various sweets and treats.

“Athene can I do your hair?” asked Julie.

Athene looked slightly uncertain.

“Please!” she begged.

“Well alright then,” sighed Athene giving in.

Julie beamed and started to gently undo Athene’s plaits and brush them out by torchlight.

Julie looked at the wedding photo of Athene’s parents and was suddenly hit by inspiration. 

She did Athene’s usual two plaits, but didn’t tie them at the top of the bottom. She then took out a box of hairpins and carefully pinned Athene’s plaits in a neat crown on top of her head.

“There perfect,” said Julie admiring her own work.

“Right,” said Charlie, her face glowing as she shined her torch up into it, “ghost stories.”

The five girls got comfortable on the two beds that had been pushed together, Athene got under her quilt which she shared with Julie.

The girls stayed up all night whispering ghost stories, and gossiping, trading secrets and sharing sweets.

Athene didn’t join in much, mostly just listened. She was usually quiet in the first place but tonight she was just content to listen. 

She was happy to have friends who were willing to stay up all night with her, waiting to see what the dawn would bring.

At seven o’clock, before the sun had even begun to rise properly there was a soft knock on the door.

“Now’s not a time for knocking politely Tony!” said Mark’s ruffled voice through the door.

Mark opened the door not waiting for it be answered as he came bursting into the room.

Mark, Tony and Harry were all standing in the corridor with dressing gowns over their pyjamas, Anthony was already dressed and had clearly been up for hours.

Mark looked outraged as he saw the five girls congregated on the two beds, which were covered in sweets wrappers.

“We’ve been worried about you lot all night!” he protested with his hands on his hips, “and you lot have been having a jolly good time without us!”

“Keep it down Mark!” whispered Charlie, “or Mitch will catch us.”

Mark rolled his eyes at her before coming into the dorm with Anthony and Harry and then shutting the door.

“Next time you’re going to have a midnight feast Jules please invite us,” begged Mark.

Athene smiled slightly as she fished in her dressing gown pocket and pulled out a handful of boiled sweets, she hadn’t wanted her own share earlier.

“Wow thanks Athene!” beamed Mark as he unwrapped a mint humbug.

“You ok Athene?” asked Anthony.

Athene shrugged slightly.

There was the sound of a car driving across gravel on the school driveway outside the window.

Athene leapt off the bed frantically and looked out the window.

“Grandpa!” she yelled running fingers through her hair.


	7. Chapter 7

She was half terrified half excited; she was always pleased to see her Grandpa and she loved him, but if she ever did anything wrong, she’d know about it. Her Grandpa was a Major in the army, and sometimes forgot that Athene was on eleven-year-old girl, and not a soldier.

Athene rushed around the room as fast as a spitfire, grabbing a clean uniform and brushing her teeth at the same time.

The boys took this as their cue to leave, so that Athene could get ready.

“Do I look alright?” said Athene breathlessly as she run into the boys in the corridor.

“Perfect as always,” chuckled Harry.

“Your parents should have called you Aphrodite instead of Athene,” said Mark as he kissed her hand.

Athene looked at Mark slightly confused for a moment; she couldn’t always tell when he was joking.

“You look fine Athens,” assured Anthony.

“Thanks Anthony,” said Athene as she made sure her hairpins were still in properly from last night.

Mr Mitchell came down the corridor at this point, looking slightly preoccupied.

“You boys haven’t seen Athene, have you? Her grandfather’s looking for her.”

Anthony couldn’t help but smirk slightly, as he indicated towards the open door to the girls dorm where Athene was standing.

“I saw him pull up,” explained Athene.

“He’s in my office, don’t worry it’s going to be alright.”

“You want me to come with you Athens?” asked Anthony.

The others were all busy that day, there was auditions for the carol service, and Harry and Charlie were going to practise their rugby.

“No don’t worry I’ll be fine,” said Athene smiling.

She looked much more relaxed and relieved now that her Grandpa had arrived, it was like a huge weight had been lifted off of her shoulders.

Anthony shrugged slightly and flopped down on his bed with the dorm door open and opened the Odyssey. 

Mr Mitchell had brought it up in class and Anthony had checked out a copy from the library. It was a bit advanced, but Anthony thought he’d give it a go.

He hadn’t gotten through the first chapter however, when he heard a noise out in the corridor. He looked up from his book curiously and saw Athene tears running down her cheeks, rushing into her own dorm leaving the door open as she ran in.

“Athene?” he asked getting off the bed and leaving the book behind on the bed.

Athene was in floods of tears as she started to pack away her books and clothes into her trunk.

“Athene? Whats wrong?”

“It’s Grandpa,” she sobbed as she took the quilt off her bed, “he’s taking me away!”

“What?” stammered Anthony.

Athene didn’t answer him though, as she started to fold her photograph frames up in her quilt.

“Athene,” he said desperately, “stop rushing about and tell me what the hell is going on!”

Athene took a deep breath and knelt down on the floor by her trunk before sobbing hysterically.

“Now come on Athens,” said Anthony gently putting his arm around her, “it cant be the end of the world!”

“But it is,” she sobbed, “Grandpa’s taking me home.”

“Yeah I know, for the memorial service.”

“No,” she sighed, “he’s taking me home and I won’t be coming back.”

“What?” he stammered, “but why? You’re happy, here aren’t you?”

“Of course I am,” said Athene looking up at him, “but the only reason I was here is because Dad was in the army, now Dad’s gone and Grandpa wants me to move home.”

“Something about making the most of the family he’s got left,” she muttered.

“Right,” said Anthony taking a deep breath and shaking his head.

“You stay here,” he said getting up, “I’m going to sort this out.”

“What are you talking about?” she cried.

But Anthony had already gone. He wasn’t scared of him, Major or not. If Major Richards thought Athene was going to leave, it would be over his dead body!

He reached Mr Mitchell’s office, he could hear the sound of raised voices through the door.

He took a deep breath and knocked firmly on the door. He didn’t wait for an answer though and opened the door.

“Anthony what is it?” asked Mr Mitchell who had his head in his hands.

There was a man with greying hair sitting opposite Mr Mitchell’s desk, he was a tall well-built man, and at the moment had a look of fury in his eyes.

“Haven’t you been taught to knock boyo?” said Major Richards whipping his head around to look at Anthony his voice full of venom.

“I did knock sir,” said Anthony.

“Your Mr Mitchell and I are in the middle of a private conversation, if you wouldn’t mind waiting outside please?” Major Richards seethed in the politest tone he could manage.

“Well its hardly private if you’re shouting at the top of your voice,” said Anthony quickly, “sir,” he added almost as an afterthought.

“Hmmm,” muttered Major Richards.

“Be that as it may, this conversation has got nothing to do with you.”

“Actually sir that’s where you’re wrong!”

“Anthony,” sighed Mr Mitchell, “please wait outside.”

But Mr Mitchell’s pleas fell on deaf ears, it was as if he wasn’t even in his own office.

“And what makes you feel like you’ve got a right to be in this conversation boyo?” asked Major Richards standing up and standing over Anthony.

Anthony gulped, as he felt the last of his courage fade away.

“Well,” he stammered, “I just like Athene should stay here, she’s happy, she’s got friends.”

“As I’ve been trying to tell you Major Richards,” said Mr Mitchell, “Athene has settled down extremely well. She is doing remarkably well with her lessons, and has built herself a good group of friends.”

“If she can do that here, she can do that back in any other school back in Pembrokeshire,” said Major Richards, “and she can live at home where she belongs!”

“That is possible Major Richards.”

“I don’t want to hear any possible,” ranted Major Richards and banging his fist on Mr Mitchell’s desk.

“My son has just died! I am taking my granddaughter home to her granny where she belongs!”

“Are you sure you’re thinking about what’s best for Athene or best for you?” asked Anthony.

“What did you say boyo?” asked Major Richards menacingly.

“How do you know what’s best for Athene, did you even actually ask her?”

“Of course, I know what’s best for her,” said Major Richards shaking his head, “she’s my granddaughter!”

“Then why is she crying in her dorm?”

“Her father just died!” yelled Major Richards.

“I know that!” shouted Anthony.

“But it wasn’t her father she was crying about! She was upset because she had to leave her new friends behind!”

Major Richards went white and seemed to look even more angry.

Anthony calmed down slightly, but he was far from finished.

“Look,” sighed Anthony, “I’m sorry your son died, Captain Richards from the way you and Athene talk about him was clearly a wonderful man who didn’t deserve to die.”

Major Richards nodded slightly as if permission to continue.

“But her father’s just died, hasn’t her life been thrown up enough? Pulling her out of school now would be a huge mistake. Doesn’t she need some stability in a place where she feels comfortable and has friends?”

“Have you finished?” asked Major Richards.

“Yes sir,” said Anthony somewhat foolishly.

“Is there anything you’d like to add Mr. Mitchell?”

“No, I think Anthony covered it,” said Mr Mitchell astounded.

“It’s a long drive to Wales,” muttered Major Richards, “tell Athene to meet me by the car in ten minutes with a suitcase for a few days.”

“She can stay?” stammered Anthony.

Major Richards smiled slightly before nodding.

“She can stay,” he nodded.

Anthony’s face lit up and he gave a shocked Major Richards a quick hug.

“Thank you, sir!” exclaimed Anthony before rushing up to the girls dorm.

“What’s going on?” asked a very anxious Athene.

“You’re staying!” beamed Anthony.

“I’m what!” exclaimed Athene her eyes lighting up.

“You’re staying!” laughed Anthony pulling her in for a huge hug.

“I don’t know how you did it Anthony, but you’re amazing,” she laughed.

Anthony helped Athene down to the car with her suitcase, both of them beaming like Cheshire Cats.

“There you are Cariad!” beamed Major Richards pulling her in for a hug.

“Don’t worry Anthony,” chuckled Major Richards, “I’ll bring your friends back in a few days.”

“Bye Anthony,” said Athene giving him one last hug, “and thanks again!”

Anthony watched and waved as the car pulled away from the drive.

“I don’t know how you did it Anthony,” muttered Mr Mitchell who had been standing next to him.

“But if she’d had to go it would have been a real shame.”

“Yeah,” nodded Anthony, “it would.”


	8. Chapter 8

Athene came back from Wales a few days later, and the last month of term flew by. There was the house play which Julie and Mark both performed in, they only had a few lines each as they were only first years but they very memorable and then the school carol service which was opened by Julie singing Once In Royal David’s City.

On the afternoon before they all went home for Christmas was the house entertainments. Each of the schoolhouses had half an hour to put on a short show for the rest of the school and everyone was involved, there was singing and dancing and imitating of the teachers.

Nick and Simon gave very memorable impressions of Mr Davies and Mr Mitchell. Simon’s Welsh accent and bellowing had the whole school in stiches. 

The only thing better than that had been Marks impression of Madame Blanche, the French mistress, he was wearing a ridiculous wig and had borrowed a skirt from Julie. His accent was outrageous and over exaggerated, but at the same time hilarious.

After the four houses put on their shows, then the teachers had their turn. They were rushing about the stage pretending to be students, in blazers and too short trousers.

It made an amazing end to the term, and the next day Anthony woke up full of excitement.

His face lit up and he jumped out of bed and started to pack his suitcase.

“What’s all the noise?” grumbled Harry.

“Our parents will be here in an hour, it’s the Christmas hols!”

Harry’s eyes popped open and the other boys all jumped out of bed and rushed around the room singing Christmas carols loudly.

Once Mark, Harry and Anthony had finished packing and got dressed, they ran across the hallway not even bothering to knock.

“We Wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year!” they bellowed.

“Glad tidings we bring to you and your kin,” added Athene and Charlie.

“We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year!” they all finished.

“Would you lot please shut up!” groaned Julie, “Christmas isn’t for another week.”

“Come on Ginger!” laughed Mark spinning over to her bed, “dance with me!”

“I hate these red jumpers,” grumbled Lizzie as she came out of the bathroom wearing her uniform, “they’re just so red!”

“Almost as red as Rudolph’s nose!” giggled Charlie.

The dorm was soon full of people singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, even Julie joined in, as they all danced around the room getting ready for the three weeks away.

They were just in the middle of singing I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause, when Matron came into the dorms.

“You won’t be seeing any Santa Clause if you don’t get moving,” said Matron, “your parents are waiting.”

“Race you!” said Charlie picking up her suitcase and charging out the dorm.

“No fair Mackenzie!” yelled Harry as he followed her, “you had a head start!”

Athene and Anthony picked up their own suitcases and rushed downstairs and out to the school drive where their parents were waiting.

“Grandpa!” exclaimed Athene as she ran over to him.

“Hello sweetheart!” beamed Major Richards lifting her up in the air.

“You alright Tony?” he asked as he put Athene down.

Major Richards seemed to have taken a liking to Anthony. He had been impressed with how Anthony had stood up to him on their first meeting, that took guts.

“Yes thank you sir,” said Anthony.

“You got my address to write?” asked Athene.

“We’ll swap presents after Christmas yeah?”

“Yeah,” nodded Athene.

They hugged each other goodbye quickly before Athene got in the car to go home.

“There you are Anthony,” said Mr Pennington giving his son a hug.

“You haven’t seen Fred and Ginger, have you?” 

“Last time I saw them they were having one waltz down the corridor,” said Simon.

“We weren’t waltzing,” said Mark as he and Julie appeared almost out of nowhere, “we were doing a tango.”

“Like there’s a difference,” scoffed Simon as he loaded the suitcases into the Range Rover.

They were taking Julie home with them, as she lived next door to them.

“Right headcount!” called Mr Pennington as they all got in the car.

Mr Pennington turned around and quickly counted five students.

“Has everybody got everything?” he asked.

“Yes sir!” called Antony.

“Tap shoes check,” said Mark counting on his fingers, “guitar check, dancing partner check.”

“Homework?” asked Nick already knowing the answer.

“Sod that!” chorused Simon and Mark.

“What was that?” asked Mr Pennington sternly.

“Yes Dad,” said Mark innocently.

“Hmm,” muttered Mr Pennington smirking.

“What you boys going to get up to this holiday?”

“Studying,” sighed Nick.

“Do you ever do anything else,” smirked Simon shaking his head.

“Imagine if there’s snow,” breathed Julie, “it would be so pretty!”

“It would make my commute up to London a bit hard Julie,” chuckled Mr Pennington, “snow on the trainlines!”

“But it would be so pretty, a white Christmas,” she said dreamily.

“What about you Simon?” asked Mark.

“Well you lot have heard of the twelve days of Christmas?”

“Yeah,” they all nodded.

“Well one of the boys in my dorm and me have got a bet,” he beamed, “the twelve dates of Christmas.”

“Oh god!” groaned Mr Pennington.

“Do they have to be with the same girl?” asked Nick.

“No of course not, as many as possible.”

“Just how many girls are you seeing Simon?” asked Mr Pennington suspiciously.

“Four or five, maybe six, can’t quite remember.”

“I give up!” said Mr Pennington.

Before long they arrived back at The Yews, Mrs Fforbes Hamilton seemed to have been waiting for her, because she came charging up the drive to their house pursuing the car.

“Juliet!” exclaimed Mrs Fforbes Hamilton as Julie got down out of the car.

Mrs Fforbes Hamilton pulled her daughter into a bone crushing hug.

“I’ve missed you so much!”

“Steady on Priss!” said Mr Pennington, “you’ll strangle the girl!”

“Sorry,” said Mrs Fforbes Hamilton loosening her hug, “you’re right Brian, I’ve just missed her so much!”

“I don’t see why your Father insists on sending you too boarding school,” she muttered as tears ran down her cheeks.

“Where is Daddy?” asked Julie getting her suitcase out the boot.

“Your Father’s visiting some of the farms today,” said Mrs Fforbes Hamilton.

The Fforbes Hamilton’s were dairy farmers and had been for generations. They owned practically all the cows in the county, and several hundred acres of land. 

Mr George Fforbes Hamilton Julie’s father had taken over from his father a few years ago, the business had been passed down father to son for over a hundred years.

But Julie was an only child, and Mr and Mrs Fforbes Hamilton hadn’t been young when they had her so a male heir coming along now was highly unlikely.

“See you tomorrow Julie!” said Anthony giving her a quick hug.

“Bye Fred!”

“Bye Ginger!”

Julie and her mother skipped along the road slightly to Julie’s house catching up as Mrs Brown came rushing out of the house.

Mrs Brown still had her apron on over her house dress, and her face was half covered in flour.

“Would you look at you all!” she gushed as she pulled them all into hugs.

“Are you sure that’s you Anthony?” she asked suspiciously.

“Because the Anthony I knew was at least half a foot shorter!”

“It’s still me Brownie,” chuckled Anthony as they headed into the house.

They had a quick lunch of tomato soup with fresh bread rolls, before they all split.

“Well I’m off,” said Simon coming back down to the kitchen after lunch in a light green jumper and jeans.

“If I’ve got a bet to win, I’ve got some work to do,” he smirked before grabbing his coat and scarf and heading into the village.

Mark checked his watch and leaped up from the table.

“It’s music hour!” he yelled jumping up from the table and running through to the sitting room.

“Starts in two minutes,” he called as he fiddled with the radio finding the right station. 

“Dad,” asked Nick nervously biting his lip, “how’s your algebra?”

“Not too bad,” he shrugged, “why?”

“Could you help me go over my Quadratic Equations?”

Mr Pennington seemed to think this over for a moment.

“I know it’s your day off and everything,” rambled Nick, “I’ll get it if you’re busy.”

“Nick, I haven’t said no yet,” chuckled Mr Pennington, “of course I’ll help you.”

“Cheers Dad,” beamed Nick as they went through to his office.

“And then there were two,” muttered Mrs Brown as she finished clearing the table.

“I’ve got to make the mince pies and bake the Christmas cake.”

“We’ve got enough sugar rations for that?” asked Anthony astounded.

“Always do,” beamed Mrs Brown, “I’ve been saving up the rations since September.”

“Why don’t you tell me all about school whilst I get on with the baking?”

Anthony told her enthusiastically about all his new friends and his classes and his teachers.

“The best class though is Latin,” enthused Anthony as he helped Mrs Brown stir the mincemeat for the pies.

“It’s amazing, some people get a bit bored by it, but Latin’s all logic really.”

“Hmmm,” muttered Mrs Brown as she rolled out the pastry.

“And at the end of every single lesson, he tells us all a story from Greek mythology, they’re really fascinating.”

“I’m sure they are,” she nodded.

“You know how everyone calls Mr Mitchell Old Mitch?”

“Yes dear,” she nodded again.

“I swear he’s no more than thirty, he’s really nice and always cheerful. But he’s got a strict side when he has to, he can get really angry!”

“I’m sure he can,” she beamed.

“And then there’s Mr Davies, everyone calls him Dragon because he’s Welsh. He’s really loud, you can hear him from a mile away if he’s shouting for you!”

“Athene’s Welsh too, she’s better at Rugby than over half the boys in the year. Mr Davies is really annoyed that he can’t use her and Charlie on the teams.”

“Why can’t he use Charlie, from your letters Charlie seemed to be a boy.”

“No Charlie’s a girl,” chuckled Anthony.

“But she’s in the military cadets!” said Mrs Brown astounded.

“I know, she’s a real tomboy, I think it comes from having four older brothers.”

“It’s always a contest between Athene and I who’s going to come top in class, we always study together so we’re quite close.”

“She’s slightly better than me at English and French, but I usually come top in Maths, and of course she always beats me in Home Economics,” he laughed.

“But in Latin, we’re usually about tied. We’re going to write to each other this holiday, Athene lives with her grandparents and doesn’t have any friends at home.”

“You seem to think a lot of this Athene of yours,” chuckled Mrs Brown as they cut out stars to go on top of the pies.

“What do you mean?” asked Anthony curiously as he ate a spare raisin.

“You talk about her a lot, are you sure you don’t fancy her?”

“What!” asked Anthony astounded.

“No of course not, she’s just my friend.”

“Are you sure?” she asked smirking slightly.

“There’s nothing between me and Athene, of course I don’t fancy her. She’s my best friend that’s all.”

“If you say so,” she muttered putting the mince pies in the oven.

“It’s like Julie and Mark, we’re just best friends.”

“Nobody could be like Fred and Ginger,” chuckled Mrs Brown.

“No you’re right,” admitted Anthony beaming, “nobody could!”


	9. Chapter 9

Anthony shivered slightly as he woke up, it was freezing. He pulled a warm jumper on over his pyjamas and crept from the room, trying not to wake up Mark.

He picked up some writing paper and a pen and carried them through to the linen cupboard, which had became a regular haunt off his.

He hitched himself up onto the top shelf and pulled his knees up and put a book on his knees, so he’d have something to lean against whilst writing.

24th December 1952

Dear Athene, Merry Christmas Eve!

Is at as cold in Wales as it is here? Judging from your letter about the sheep growing icicles up on the hill opposite your house it’s even colder! Hard luck! Hope you’re keeping nice and warm.

Simon is being a right prat this holiday, he’s now reached the eigth date of Christmas and is going to have to start to get imaginative soon, having covered all the normal dates such as cinema tea shop and park.

Nick took me on the bus into Horsham the nearby town yesterday to do our Christmas shopping. Unsurprisingly there wasn’t much on offer, everything that isn’t in short supply is on the ration, so we had to get creative.

Nick hardly leaves Dad’s study. There is a very firm rule that if he works in there, even if Dad’s not at home he wont get disturbed.

Nick’s got nothing to worry about, he could probably pass those GCE O exams with his eyes shut even if they aren’t for five months. He just worries so much, but I don’t tease him about it like Mark or Simon because it’s just mean.

Mark and Julie have been a ruddy nightmare. I don’t usually mind their dancing, but next term is the school musical, and they’ve been practising their tap dancing in the attic again. Between that and Simon’s loud music blaring it’s starting to give me a bit of a headache.

Mrs Brown keeps on trying to tell me it’s just a migraine from too much reading but I know its really from a combination of tap dancing and Simon’s wireless radio. 

Unsurprisingly Nick has asked for a pair of headphones for Christmas to block out the noise, hopefully Dad will get Simon a pair too and he can plug those into his bloody radio!

We’ve got to stay up really late tonight, as we always go to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve into Christmas dad.

Got to go now, it’s nearly time for breakfast.

Send my greetings to the sheep on the hill, Anthony.

Anthony jumped back off the top shelf and went to go and get dressed for the day.

“Morning Marky,” said Anthony as he pulled on a pair of jeans and a warm jumper.

“Is it?” grumbled Mark glaring at me slightly.

“It’s Christmas tomorrow,” he beamed.

“Wake me up tomorrow then,” muttered Mark.

“So when Julie comes around with Gene Kelly am I supposed to tell them you can’t be bothered to see them?”

“You wouldn’t dare!” said Mark his eyes popping open.

Gene Kelly was Mark’s favourite film star, and Mark wanted to be exactly like him when he grew up.

“Do you really want to risk that?” asked Anthony as he left the room.

Mark jumped out of bed very quickly, just in case of the one in a million chance that Anthony wasn’t lying.

Mark raced past Anthony still in his pyjamas and stood at the top of the staircase and looked eagerly at the bannisters which were decorated with fir branches and tinsel.

“Don’t do it Marky!” said Nick reaching to stop his little brother from ruining the decorations.

“Don’t worry I won’t,” said Mark innocently.

“Do it until boxing day,” he added in an under tone.

“On your own head be it,” said Anthony.

“And he means that literally,” laughed Simon, “if that doesn’t deserve a wallop over the head from Brownie what does?”

The four boys headed downstairs were there was five bowls of porridge waiting.

Simon ate his porridge very quickly and nearly burnt his tongue on it.

“Whats your hurry?” asked Nick.

“I’m taking Celia ice skating in Guildford,” said Simon between mouthfuls, “we’ve got to catch the bus.”

“Celia’s been getting a lot of attention,” said Mr Pennington from behind his newspaper, “this is the fifth time you’re taking her out.”

“You keeping track are we?” asked Simon.

Mr Pennington smirked slightly.

“You’re just jealous Dad,” said Mark.

“I like Cels, she’s a lot of fun,” admitted Simon.

“Do I hear wedding bells?” asked Mark.

Simon clipped Mark around the ear quickly as he fetched his coat and scarf.

“Don’t miss the bus back!” called Mrs Brown, but Simon was already gone.

“Hi gang,” said Julie taking Simon’s seat at the table.

Julie was rosy cheeked from the cold and was wrapped up warm in pretty pink winter coat and a matching scarf and beret.

“What you kids up to today?”

“I’ve got to head into the village,” said Anthony.

“He has to send a letter to his fair lady love!” said Mark dramatically.

Anthony flinched slightly, he knew that Mark didn’t mean anything by it.

“I’ve got to read through some manuscripts,” said Mr Pennington.

Mr Pennington ran Pennington publishing firm up in London, which his father had found before him and was extremely successful. It was assumed that at least one of the four sons would join the business and eventually run the company, but Mr Pennington wasn’t going to force any of his sons into the job if they didn’t want to.

After they had finished their breakfast Anthony and Mark put on their coats and scarfs and they walked down to the village two miles away with Julie.

Well, Anthony at least walked, Julie and Mark did some kind of half dance half walk, they were putting on a performance for the two families that evening and that was they’d been practising. So while Anthony walked, they shuffle step tapped their way down the country lanes avoiding the occasional car.  
They were fairly well known in the area, there weren’t that many families that lived in the area with children, much less ones that danced around the village like Mark and Julie were wont to do.

The friendly shopkeepers would always wave to them as they walked past, they went into the post office because Anthony had to post another letter to Athene.

“Good morning lads,” beamed the postmaster behind his desk, “was wondering what time you’d be in young Tony, another letter for that young lady in Wales?”

Anthony smiled slightly and handed over the letter, before they all went back to the house. Julies house had a fence on the edge of the property that was right next to the main road, so the three of them pulled themselves up onto the fence. 

They sometimes played a game called sweet or sour, they had to wave to all the cars that drove past, and if the driver waved they were sweet, if they didn’t they were sour, if they gave them a rude hand gesture Mark always enjoyed shouting at them.

As it was a main road, there were always at least a car every few minutes so it was never boring.

Eventually they had to go in for lunch, and after lunch Julie and Mark spent the afternoon practising in the attic, it was a huge secret what show they were going to be doing that year as they practised most of it at Julie’s house, they only used the attic for tap practise because of the bare floorboards.

Finally, at six o’clock, Simon came back from Guildford.

“How was Celia?” asked Nick.

“Pretty good, we’re going out again in a few days,” beamed Simon, “she’s um invited me round to tea at her parents’ house.”

“She’s what?” choked Nick.

“That’s serious Simon,” said Mr Pennington clearly impressed.

“So, what about the twelve dates Christmas?”

“Well I’ve only got four more,” shrugged Simon, “tea at Cels’ counts as one, she’s going to help me figure out the other three.”

Not long after this Mr and Fforbes Hamilton arrived.

“Hello Priss, George,” said Mr Pennington greeting his old friends, “Merry Christmas!”

“Merry Christmas Brian!” said Mr Fforbes Hamilton as he took off his coat.

“You lot ready down there?” asked Mark shouting over the staircase.

“Ready Marky!” called Mr Pennington.

“If you want accompanying I’m going to need some clue as to what you’re actually doing,” muttered Anthony.

“It’s on the piano stand,” said Mark casually as he came into the room with Julie.

Mark was wearing his Sunday suit without the jacket, and Julie was wearing a simple cut knee length short sleeved white dress. Both of them were wearing their tap shoes. Both of them for some reason were carrying umbrellas which they leant against the wall

Anthony looked over to the piano and saw some music sheets which he could swear weren’t there last time he looked.

“Before you do anything, I don’t want you ruining my carpets!” said Mrs Brown.

Nick and Simon rolled up the rug in front the fireplace to reveal the uncovered wooden floorboards and leant it against the wall.

“So what’s all the secrecy been about?” asked Mr Fforbes Hamilton as he sat down on the sofa.

It was an annual tradition for Julie and Mark to do a little show on Christmas Eve and the two families were settled onto the sofas around the sitting room apart from Anthony who was sitting by the piano and Mark and Julie who were standing in the middle waiting to start.

“This year we shall be performing,” said Mark.

“Singing In The Rain!” they both beamed.

“Of course you are,” exclaimed Mr Pennington.

“So that’s why you needed the umbrellas!” said Nick in realisation

Anthony played the overture on the piano whilst Mark and Julie tap danced, then they did the Charleston to All I Do Is Dream Of You, which was followed by them both singing and dancing to Singing In The Rain, and then Good Morning, and Make Em Laugh. 

For the encore, they redid Singing in the Rain.

“Bravo!” exclaimed Mr Pennington as they finished.

“Beautiful as always Juliet!” said Mrs Fforbes Hamilton giving Julie a huge hug as Nick and Simon put the rug back to normal.

Then they all had dinner and everyone went to go get changed into the best clothes, before the two families headed to the midnight mass together.

That night at half past twelve the Pennington family were gathered around the fire still in their church clothes drinking cups of hot chocolate before bed. Mrs Brown was half asleep in the armchair, and the boys were all talking excitedly about the presents they were going to open in a few hours.

Anthony though was staring into the flames.

“What’s with all the melancholy Tons?” asked Nick.

“Yeah cheer up little bro, it’s Christmas,” chuckled Simon.

“I’m thinking,” said Anthony.

“When aren’t you,” muttered Simon which earnt him a well-deserved poke in the ribs from Nick.

“Well we’ve been a jolly old time,” said Anthony, “with the Christmas traditions and stuff, and it’s not even Christmas properly yet.”

“And so?” asked Simon.

“Athene’s not going to be having such a jolly Christmas,” said Anthony staring into the flames, “her Dad died last month, and she hasn’t got any brothers or sisters to celebrate with.”

“Hmm,” muttered Mr Pennington thinking something through.


	10. Chapter 10

He had enough spare petrol in the garage that he had been keeping for an emergency. That emergency had clearly just come up.

“Brownie,” said Mr Pennington.

“Yes sir?” she mumbled drowsily.

“Get the chicken and the cakes and all the food stuff in the car.”

“What?” she asked confused and still half asleep.

“Boy’s get your coats and scarves on and help me get the gifts in the car.”

“What’s going on Dad?” asked Mark excitedly.

“We’re going to spread some Christmas cheer,” said Mr Pennington as they all got up

“What?” asked Simon incredulously.

“We’re going to Wales, aren’t we?” asked Anthony his face glowing slightly.

Anthony’s face split into in a grin a mile wide as he ran to fetch his coat and helped load all the presents into the car.

Mrs Brown, Simon and Nick fell asleep on the way to Pembrokeshire, but Mark and Anthony were far too excited to sleep.

Mr Pennington was simply praying that it didn’t get any colder, because if it did it might start snowing and they’d never get back home again.

At just gone seven o’clock, they pulled up outside the Pembrokeshire military base, where the families lived.

They drove up to the night guard post.

“Merry Christmas!” beamed Mr Pennington as he rolled down his window.

“Merry Christmas,” said the young private on duty somewhat tiredly.

“We’re here to visit Major Morgan Richards and his family.”

The young private seemed slightly unconvinced.

“We’re friends with Athene!” said Mark excitedly calling out his own window.

“Oh you lot know Athy!” he said in realisation.

“Come right in,” said the night guard opening the barrier to let them in.

On the edge of the base, where a number of small houses for the families. Major Richards wasn’t on active duty anymore as he was in his early sixties but was still involved in recruitment and training of new recruits.

They stopped outside the right house, and they all climbed down out of the car.

“What if they’re not even in?” asked Mrs Brown.

“We’ll have to wait and see wont we?” said Mr Pennington as he went to knock on the door.

It was freezing, Anthony could see his breath forming in front of him in the air, but he just didn’t care.

A kindly looking woman in her early sixties wearing a flannel dressing gown went to answer the door. Her grey hair was in a loose bun.

“Hello, can I help you?” she asked kindly.

“I’m afraid if you’re looking for the Major, he’s not seeing visitors today.”

“Oh no we’re not here to see Major Richards,” chuckled Mr Pennington.

“We’re here to see Athene,” beamed Anthony.

“And wish her a very Merry Christmas,” finished Mark.

A look of dawning comprehension reached Mrs Richard’s face.

“You lot must be the Pennington’s!” she exclaimed.

“You know who we are?” asked Nick.

“Well of course I do,” laughed Mrs Richards, “Athene writes about you every week, and she writes to young Anthony every day.”

Anthony blushed slightly, which made his cheeks even more red because of the cold.

“Well come in, come in you lot must be freezing!”

They unloaded all the presents and food from the boot, and headed into the cottage all chatting and laughing cheerfully.

“What’s all this noise?” asked Major Richards coming down the stairs with a huge smile on his face.

“It can’t be Christmas can it?”

“Merry Christmas Major Richards sir,” chuckled Anthony.

“Are my eyes deceiving me or do I see a young Anthony before me?” he asked with a look of surprise and giving him a hug.

“But why?” he stammered, “how?”

“Tony was feeling like Athene wouldn’t be having the merriest of Christmases,” said Mrs Brown.

“So we’ve come to spread the Pennington family cheer,” said Simon raising his eyebrows. He could think of about five other things he would prefer to be doing today.

“Well I’m glad you did!” beamed Major Richards shaking all their hands and helping them put the presents under the tree whilst Mrs Brown put the food in the kitchen.

“Why don’t you two go find Athene?” asked Mrs Richards, “you’ll know which door it is.”

Mark and Anthony beamed at each other before charging up the stairs to the second floor of the cottage.

There was three bedrooms on the second floor, and a bathroom. There was also a trapdoor in the ceiling, which probably led up to the attic.

One of the bedroom doors had a small wooden sign nailed on, which was engraved and read Athene’s Room and had flowers engraved around it.

Anthony went and knocked on the door.

“Just a minute Granny!” called Athene from within her room.

“I’m just finishing my letter to Anthony!”

“You don’t need to bother with that Cariad!” said Mark in his best impression of a Welsh accent.

“And what makes you think that?” asked Athene still not opening the door.

“Because he’s right here,” said Mark opening the door.

It wasn’t a large room, but it wasn’t small either. The walls had been painted a very pale eggshell blue. One wall was covered in a collage of black and white photographs of Athene and her family. There was a small desk which was full of books, and there was even more books stacked in a tower next to the bed.

Athene was lying down on her bed writing a letter, her long auburn hair starting to come out of its plaits from the day before. There was a small double bed, which had a patchwork quilt on top of it, sewn into the middle of the quilt was a large dragon made out of red velvet which had originally been a party dress when Athene was a little girl.

The twins poked both their heads around the door and beamed at her.

“Anthony!” she screamed jumping off the bed disregarding the letter.

“Mark!”

She pulled them both in for a huge hug and for a minute Anthony thought she was never going to let go.

“Merry Christmas Athene,” laughed Anthony.

“Merry Christmas Anthony,” she giggled.

“Come on,” said Mark once they finally stopped hugging, “there’s presents!”

In all the excitement of seeing each other they had nearly forgotten that Christmas meant presents, and they all raced downstairs.

Mr Pennington had been helping Major Richards build a large fire in the grate in the sitting room.

“Alright then adults first,” said Mr Pennington firmly.

There was a rule in the Pennington house that the adults got their presents first, because they didn’t get as many presents.

Anthony and Athene knelt down by the fire next to each other and talked excitedly, whilst Nick and Simon sorted out and handed out all the presents.

Then the kids all got their presents.

Mrs Richards reached under the tree and handed out several slightly lumpy and squashy presents to the five children. Anthony and Athene’s parcels were slightly bigger than the others.

Nick and Simon opened their parcels to find navy blue scarves and matching hats, Mark’s hat and scarf were grey and red striped.

“Cool,” said Mark looking at his scarf, “it’s the house colours!”

“Did you make these yourself?” asked Mrs Brown slightly impressed as she inspected Simon’s scarf.

“Crochet,” said Mrs Richards, “it gives me something to keep me occupied.”

Athene opened her parcel and found a light pink ribbed jumper, with a matching hat and scarf.

“Thank you, Granny, they’re gorgeous!” she gushed giving her a huge hug.

Anthony had been given a bottle green jumper hat and scarf. He was slightly surprised that he had been given a jumper when his brothers hadn’t.

“I didn’t know what colour you liked,” said Mrs Richards, “but you can never go wrong with a good green.”

“Thank you!”

Then the kids exchanged presents with each other.

Nick and Simon handed Athene and Anthony a parcel each.

Anthony could tell what was in there before he even ripped off the paper, heavy even though it was smallish. Books!

Anthony had been given the collect works of Shakespeare, and A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

Athene had been given the collect works of Jane Austen, and a copy of Jane Eyre, and Wuthering Heights.

All the books were hardback but second hand because it was hard to find anything new these days.

“We know you two will probably end up swapping books,” said Simon.

“But we thought you might a bit more of a challenge than Arthur Ransom.”

“These are great thanks!” beamed Anthony giving his brothers a hug.

“Steady on Tony!” chuckled Simon, “they’re only second hand!”

Athene was flicking through the black and white illustrations in the Jane Austen.

“Where’s my present?” asked Mark slightly offended.

“Are we going to regret this?” muttered Simon.

“I bloody well hope not,” said Nick, “it’s too late now anyway.”

They passed Mark a strangely shaped package.

He found a large scrapbook.

“I don’t like books.”

“Open it idiot,” sighed Simon.

Mark opened it to the front page which read Mark Pennington’s Guide To The Stars in Nick’s neat handwriting.

The first few pages were full of newspaper clippings and photographs of Mark’s favourite film stars, Gene Kelly got several pages all to himself including several articles on Singin in The Rain.

There was also a record of the soundtrack for Singin in The Rain.

“We know you already know it off by heart,” shrugged Nick.

“Having seen the film fifty times,” added Simon.

“Thanks Nick, Simon,” he breathed his eyes lighting up.

“I’ll have to borrow Julie’s record player,” he said excitedly.

Mr Pennington smiled slightly before he handed Nick and Simon their presents from him.

They had several each, Nick had got the headphones he had asked for, along with a five-year diary and a new fountain pen, and a navy blue cashmere jumper.

“It matches my new hat and scarf,” said Nick as he looked at his jumper, “thanks Dad!”

Simon had gotten a black cashmere jumper, a new pair of rugby boots and a black leather jacket that he had asked for.

Simon pulled off his suit jacket and put on his new black jumper and leather jacket.

“What do you think?” asked Simon strutting around.

“Very swish!” said Mr Pennington.

“The ladies won’t know what’s hit them!” said Major Richards.

“If Celia fancied you before goodness knows what she’s going to think now!” chuckled Nick.

Mark had got a brand new pair of tap shoes, his old ones pinched a bit. Anthony had gotten a copy of The Odyssey and The Iliad.

Then Mr Pennington passed Mark the biggest present in the whole room.

“Are you sure this is for me?” asked Mark looking at the huge box.

“Is there any other Mark Pennington in the room?”

Mark beamed and ripped open the paper and lifted the lid off the box.

“A record player!” breathed Mark.

“You and Julie can now practise your Fred and Ginger act whenever you like,” chuckled Mr Pennington.

“Even got permission for you to take it back to school with you.”

“Thanks Dad,” beamed Mark.

“And thanks again for the headphones,” added Nick smirking slightly.

“I thought you might be needing them,” said Mr Pennington as he went over to the tree.

“Merry Christmas Anthony,” he said passing him a box, it was smaller than Mark’s box had been and Anthony had no idea what could be in here.

The box wasn’t light, and Anthony slowly opened the box. 

“A Camera!” exclaimed Anthony picking it up out of the box.

“That’s not just a camera boyo,” chuckled Major Richards impressed, “that’s a cinecamera, it records moving pictures, up to thirty seconds at a time!”

“Like a movie!” exclaimed Mark.

“It can’t record sound Mark,” said Mr Pennington, “but other than that yes.”

“I thought you might like to record some of you and your friends so you can look back when you’re older, there’s plenty of film, just send them home when you want anything developed.”

“You’re the best Dad!” said Anthony giving him a huge hug.

“Glad to hear it,” said Mr Pennington patting his son on the back.

They spent the day trying out Mark’s new record player, and testing Anthony’s new camera. 

It was a very strange Christmas day, an assortment of two Christmas dinners and over a dozen hours of driving there and back, but it was a Christmas that none of them would ever forget.


	11. Chapter 11

Athene was riffling under her bed for her old shoe box. She had just finished her last end of year exam, Latin, the end of term wasn’t for another few weeks though.

It was strange to think that she had nearly reached the end of her first ever year at St Christopher’s.

Now that her exams were over though, she found herself thinking about her parents, she always tended to think about her parents today. The 10th of June was her parents wedding anniversary, but it was also her birthday. 

When she had been born her Dad had laughed that he was never going to forget the date, because now the two happiest days of his life could be celebrated on the same day, the day he had married Ruth the love of his life, and the day that Athene had been born.

As she was taking the lid off the box, Anthony and Julie came into the room with Mark.

“What’s in your box Pandora?” asked Mark flopping down on Julie’s bed.

Athene smiled slightly.

“Nothing much, just personal stuff really, newspaper clippings, some of my parents’ old stuff.”

The things in the box weren’t of very much monetary value, but they meant a lot to Athene, her Mum’s old pointe shoes slightly worn out, a piece of lace from her Mum’s wedding dress, some newspaper clippings announcing their wedding stuff like that. Most of the box those was taken up by letters that they had written to each other during the war.

“Is that a pair of pointe shoes!” asked Julie excitedly picking them out of the shoe box.

“Be careful!” exclaimed Athene, “they were my Mum’s and they’re really old so they’re a bit fragile.”

“Don’t worry I am being careful,” scoffed Julie as she took a proper look at the pink satin shoes.

“What’s this?” asked Anthony pulling a small box out.

“It’s the Victoria Cross,” beamed Athene.

“Just a sec,” said Athene riffling through the box for a newspaper clipping.

“Here you are,” she nodded passing him an old well-read article.

Anthony read it out loud.

July 10th 1941. 

Sergeant Daniel Richards (26) was decorated for bravery today by King George VI with the Victoria Cross. He was fighting in the front in Egypt under heavy fire, when his commanding officer, Captain Smith (31) was shot. Without a commanding officer, Sergeant Richards took control of his battalion the Pembrokeshire 2nd division and not only managed to get his battalion to safety and out of the line of fire without any more injuries, he was also able to take several prisoners.

As well as being awarded the Victoria Cross, Sergeant Richards has now been promoted to Captain Richards making his command over the Pembrokeshire 2nd division official. 

Captain Richards shall be returning to the front next month after a month’s leave.

When speaking to Captain Richards, we asked him what he was going to do during his leave.

“I am going to go home to see my family,” he told us, “my wife Ruth gave birth to our first child a month ago, and I can’t wait to meet her!”

Captain Richards told us that he and his battalion had been trying to find names for his new-born daughter. Captain Michael Smith (deceased) has suggested naming her Athene after the Greek goddess of war strategy. Captain Richards and his wife have decided to name their daughter Athene, in Captain Richards late friend Captain Smith’s honour.

“I’ve got to stay,” chuckled Anthony, “that is pretty amazing, your Dad must have quite a man!”

“So you’re telling me that your Dad got back from Egypt, and the king got to him before his wife and new born baby?” asked Mark incredulously.

Athene shrugged as she put the things back away in the box and Julie passed her back Ruth’s old ballet shoes.

“You ready in here?” asked Harry poking his head around the door.

“Ready for what?” asked Athene confused.

Charlie ignored her and she came into the room with Lizzie, Lucy and Harry.

Lizzie was carrying something behind her back, and everyone looked very excited.

Anthony rushed to go and get his camera out.

“What’s going on?”

Lizzie pulled out a cupcake from behind her back with a single candle on it.

“Happy birthday to you,” they chorused, “happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Athene! Happy birthday to you!”

“And many more!” sung Mark.

“Well go on Athene!” said Anthony behind his camera, “make a wish!”

Athene closed her eyes and blew the candle out.

“For she’s a jolly good fellow!” sang Harry and Charlie, “for she’s a jolly good fellow! For she’s a jolly good fellow! That nobody can deny!”

“How did you lot even know it’s my birthday!” she laughed.

“I didn’t tell you all because it was on the last day of exams.”

“Well we knew it was in June,” explained Anthony.

“So we wrote to your grandparents and asked them for the date,” beamed Mark.

“Of course you did,” chuckled Athene.

Because of rationing there hadn’t been enough eggs and sugar for a proper cake, but Lizzie had made one cupcake so at least Athene got cake on her birthday.

“So what did you wish for Athene?” asked Lucy.

“She’s not allowed to say,” said Lizzie.

“I know what I would have wished for,” grumbled Charlie.

“Enough cake to go around!” Charlie laughed.

“That’s really wishing for the end of rationing Charlie,” pointed out Anthony.

“Dad says that won’t be for about another year,” sighed Harry.

Harry’s Dad, Sir Graham Knowles, was a very rich landowner who also worked for the Ministry of Defence. So if Harry’s Dad said that rationing probably wouldn’t end for another year, rationing wouldn’t end for another year.

“There might not be enough cake,” said Harry pulling out several bottles and glasses, “but we do have ginger beer!”

“You’re a real brick Harry!” beamed Charlie as he poured out eight glasses of ginger beer.

“A toast!” said Mark raising his glass.

“To the end of rationing in 1954!” called Harry.

“To not having failed our exams!” laughed Athene as she rose her own glass.

“To getting picked for the Speech Day entertainment!” exclaimed Julie.

“To winning the swimming race on Sports Day!” called Charlie.

“You’ll have to beat me first,” muttered Harry smirking at Charlie.

“And most importantly,” said Anthony smiling at Athene, “to Athene, may she be blessed with many more happy years!”

Athene blushed slightly as Anthony smiled at her.

“Drink up then!” beamed Harry.

They all downed the glasses, and the bubbled tickled Athene’s throat on the way down.

“Right presents!” called Mark.

“I’ve got presents?” spluttered Athene.

“Of course, you’ve got presents silly,” said Charlie as she and Harry placed about half a dozen presents and a huge parcel on Athene’s bed.

Lizzie had made Athene a bookmark in purple wool, matron had been teaching the girls how to knit and sew. It was optional, and some of the boys took it as well.

Lucy had given Athene a small bag of lavender for her underwear drawer.

Harry had gotten Athene a book on famous Welsh rugby players.

Julie had gotten Athene a leather-bound diary, and Charlie had gotten her a nice new fountain pen to go with it.

Mark had given her a large bag of blackcurrant liquorices which were her favourites.

Anthony handed Athene a small book.

It was a photo journal and was labelled St. Christopher’s first year.

It was full of black and white stills that he had taken on his camera over the last six months, there was photos from Christmas, and of Athene and all her friends. When anything important had happened over the last six months, or even anything perfectly ordinary Anthony could be found behind his camera, this meant that although there was a lot of photos, Anthony wasn’t in most of them, apart from the one. 

The six of them were all sat on a bench in the grounds of the school. Harry and Charlie were perched on the arms of the bench, Mark was sitting in the middle between Julie and Athene and had his arms around them all. They were all laughing at Anthony who had managed to dive into the grass next to the bench and was lying down in it, as he had set a timer on his camera.

“Thanks Anthony!” beamed Athene getting up and giving him a huge hug.

“It’s perfect!”

“I only wish you were in more of them,” she laughed.

“I’ll bear that in mind for next time,” beamed Anthony.

“You’ve still got to open the big box!” pointed out Charlie who had been eyeing the huge box covered in postage stamps.

“Oh of course!” Athene laughed as she took the string and brown paper off the box.

She lifted off the lid of the box and found a large number of presents

These were her presents from back home, which was also a care package as it included a long letter and a large tin on top of the presents.

Athene pulled the tin out and opened it.

“I think your wish has come true Charlie,” chuckled Athene, “my Gran’s sent a tin of Welsh Cakes, there’s more than enough for everyone!”

“Oh!” exclaimed Charlie, “I’ve never had one of those!”

“Help yourself,” chuckled Athene as she went through the rest of the box.

Her Grandpa had sent her a new rugby top.

She pulled out a parcel which felt light and Athene unwrapped it.

It was a pink floral summer dress with matching hair ribbons.

“Were did you get that?” exclaimed Julie as she looked at the dress.

“My Granny made it,” said Athene beaming, “she’s going to teach me dressmaking this summer!”

There was still two parcels left in the box, one large and one quite small.

She pulled out the smaller one which had a small note attached.

“We found this going through your Dad’s things, Granny and Grandpa.”

Athene looked some what nervous, almost as if she didn’t want to open the box, this was her Dad’s last ever gift to her.

She took a deep breath and took the paper off and found a small box with a card attached.

“Dear Athene, Happy Birthday Cariad! Sorry if I can’t be with you today. I saw these and thought of you. Love always Dad.”

Athene bit her lip to stop any tears running down her cheeks before taking the lid off the box.

There was a small pair of silver stud earrings in the box, and a necklace with a heart shaped gemstone attached.

Athene took the necklace out of the box delicately and looked at it properly.

The gemstone appeared to be clear white almost transparent, but also had bits of blue shining almost ethereally.

“Oh my Mum’s got some of those,” said Charlie, “that’s a moonstone!”

“It’s gorgeous!” gushed Lizzie.

“Your Grandparents will have to let you pierce your ears now,” said Julie, “if your Dad gave you a pair of earrings.”

Julie had got her ears pierced over the Easter holidays.

“You’ve still got that big one left!” said Mark who was desperate to know what was in there.

“I don’t know,” she shrugged.

She pulled the parcel out, it was quite light for it’s size.

Athene carefully pulled off the paper and found a single bed sized quilt, made up of dozens of different materials.

“Whats that?” asked Harry.

“You’re already got loads of quilts, haven’t you?” asked Mark.

“This one’s different,” explained Athene as she unfolded it carefully.

“It’s called a memory quilt,” she explained, “my Mum started it when I was born. You start it when a child is born and put scrap material from all their different clothes as they grow up until you’ve got a quilt. Mum died when I was two though, so Granny continued it for her.”

“Every single dress you’ve had since a little girl?” asked Harry impressed.

“Hmm,” nodded Athene.

“See that one’s from my Christening dress,” she said pointing to some white lace, “my first party dress,” pointing to some red velvet, “primary school uniform,” she said pointing at some green and blue tartan.

“That one’s from my St David’s day costume when I was eight,” she chuckled reminiscently looking at some black and red tartan material.

“I heard a rumour that there was some Welsh cakes in this room,” said Mr Davies poking his head around the dorm door.

“How did you even know?” laughed Athene as she passed him the tin.

“Your Gran’s Welsh cakes are so good, that I’ve started being able to sense them by smell,” he chuckled.


	12. Chapter 12

It was a few days before the end of term, and they were all rehearsing for the Speech Day entertainment. Everyone was involved, but Mark and Julie had been picked out specially as they had done so well in the school show last term.

They had quite a few lines each even if they were only first years and had also been picked to do ballet duet together.

They were both very excited, because this was their first chance proper chance to shine in front of the whole school.

They were in the middle of practising though, when Julie’s pointe shoes broke.

Julie had been pirouetting en pointe when she suddenly fell, and Mark fortunately caught her.

“Are you ok Julie? What happened?” he panicked; Julie never messed up.

“I’m fine,” she said glaring down at her shoes.

“My shoes have worn out!”

Julie’s pointe shoes had been running fairly thin for a while, and you never got all that much wear out of pointe shoes in the first place because they were so fragile.

“You’ll have to try and get some new one’s then,” sighed Mr Wells who ran the music and drama department.

He only had two days left until Speech Day, and he had a lot of rehearsals to get through.

Julie seemed like she was close to tears and as she and Mark got down from the stage, so that the next section could practise.

“What’s up Jules?” asked Harry.

“My pointe shoes have ruddy broken is whats up,” she grumbled.

“Well haven’t you got another pair?” asked Harry.

“If I had another pair, do you think I’d be this upset?” she snapped.

“You’ve got at least five pairs of dance shoes Julie!” said Charlie.

“I don’t have five I have three,” she corrected, “tap, ballet and pointe shoes, which have just broken.”

“Won’t any of those do?” asked Athene.

“I wouldn’t be proper,” sighed Mark, “she couldn’t do the pointe work.”

“We could do it bare foot!” suggested Mark.

Julie gave him a look as if to say that she would rather die than dance in front of the whole school and their parents barefoot.

Anthony bit his lip slightly.

“Couldn’t you ring home?” he asked, “it’s not for two days.”

“They could bring them with them,” added Athene, “when they come for Speech Day.”

“It would be tight on timing,” muttered Mark, “but it might work.”

The six of them rushed off to the Common Room the moment they were dismissed and crowded around the phone as Julie called her parents.

“Hello Mummy, Daddy,” said Julie cheerfully down the phone.

“Yes, we’re all fine.”

Julie bit her lip slightly.

“I’m afraid I’ve got a bit of a favour to ask.”

“Yes I know you’re picking me up in two days, it is very important though.”

“I need a new pair of pointe shoes,” she muttered.

“A new pair of pointe shoes,” she repeated.

“Yes of course I’ve heard of rationing Mummy, I know there are more important things I need.”

“Yes I know things are in short supply Daddy!” she exclaimed.

“But this is really important!” she pleaded, “It’s our first proper chance to show everyone what we can really do!”

“If I don’t have any we’ll have to dance barefoot!”

“Can you please at least try?” she begged.

“Thank you Mummy! Thank you Daddy!”

“See you soon!”

“They’re going to try, but things don’t look hopeful,” she muttered.

“Why don’t we go swimming?” asked Harry.

“It’s boiling and it could get your mind off things for a bit,” said Mark.

“You lot go without me,” muttered Julie.

The others all shrugged and got changed into their swimming costumes and grabbed towels.

They clearly weren’t the only ones with the idea of cooling off, there was about a dozen people in the pool.

They swam around for about an hour, and the cold water had never felt so good!

“Can I hear thunder?” asked Athene as she came up from under water.

She looked up at the sky and saw that it was getting steadily darker.

“Run for it!” yelled Harry.

The dozen students who had been swimming jumped out of the pool and rushed inside as fast as their legs could carry them before the storm started.

“That was a close one!” sighed Harry breathlessly as the storm started as they got inside.

“It wouldn’t have made much difference,” laughed Charlie.

“We’re already wet,” laughed Mark.

They stopped laughing suddenly though when they reached the dormitory. Julie was sat on the floor by Athene’s bed, trying on a pair of ancient pointe shoes, and her shoebox was on the windowsill. The window had been open because of the heat.

“What’s going on Julie?” asked Mark coldly.

Julie whipped her head around with a look of surprise on her face, she had thought they’d be another half an hour at least. The thought of their being a pair of pointe shoes under the bed next to hers when she needed them so desperately had been haunting her, and she had been right they were a perfect fit.

At that moment there was a sudden gust of wind, and the shoebox that had been balancing on the windowsill flew straight out the window to the driveway three floors before.

“No no no!” screamed Athene rushing over to look out the window.

It was now chucking it down with rain, and her parent’s things had landed in a rapidly forming muddy puddle.

Athene dropped her towel and rushed back downstairs to try and salvage what she could.

Charlie who had been standing at the edge of the room with a look of disbelief on her face, suddenly flew across the room dropping her towel.

“You selfish, spoilt, cow!” she screamed as she slapped Julie across the face.

“You never learn do you!” screamed Charlie, “you only ever care about yourself.”

Julie didn’t respond for a moment.

“It’s not my fault the stupid box fell out the window!” said Julie shaking her head, “it was just old bits of paper.”

Charlie who had been trying her best to keep her temper suddenly tackled her to the floor and started pulling at her hair again.

The three boys didn’t know what to do, they were still shocked about what was going on, the only one who had his wits about him was Mark, and he was having far too much fun watching Julie and Charlie thrash about on the ground to stop them.

“Charlotte Mackenzie! Juliet Fforbes Hamilton you stop that this instant!”

Charlie leapt off Julie and they both stood up, shocked at their first names being used. Julie was still wearing the old pointe shoes.

Mr Mitchell was standing in the doorway next to a very wet and bedraggled Athene who was sobbing. 

They thought they had seen Mr Mitchell angry before, but they were clearly wrong, he was fuming!

“Get changed and meet in my office in ten minutes,” he seethed in a voice barley above a whisper. Five of the six of them were still in wet swimming costumes.

The five students just stared at him.

“Now!” he yelled.

They scattered to go and get changed as quickly as possible. Athene was still sobbing as she got changed, all her parents’ things were ruined, the rain had made the ink run on the letters and ruined the already old newspaper clippings.

Julie placed the ballet shoes back on Athene’s bed.

“I’m sorry Athene,” she muttered.

Athene just shook her head before she kept crying.

“Sorry!” screamed Charlie.

“You’ve just ruined her parents’ stuff! And all you have to say is sorry!”

“Charlie this is bad enough,” said Harry in the doorway, “don’t start attacking her again now.”

Charlie took a deep breath and left the room still glaring at Julie.

“Come on Athene,” muttered Anthony putting an arm around her as they headed downstairs.

The six students waited outside Mr Mitchell’s office, five of them still had soaking wet hair from swimming.

Mr Mitchell came to the door, he was still fuming.

“In!” he said firmly.

The six of them went into the office.

“Sit!”

Charlie was still glaring at Julie which was difficult because Athene and Anthony were sitting between them.

Julie tried to open her mouth to talk.

“Did I tell you could speak?” asked Mr Mitchell raising his eyebrows so far, they nearly reached his hairline.

“No sir,” muttered Julie.

“Then don’t,” he said abruptly.

“It may interest you to know that I had your parents on the phone not half an hour ago Julie, they’d found you a pair of pointe shoes in a shop in London and were going to go and collect them tomorrow.”

Julie looked shocked.

“It’s a shame isn’t it that I’m going to have to tell them not to bother, as you won’t be needing them.”

Mark’s mouth dropped open.

Julie bit her lip slightly and stared at her shoes. It wasn’t that that was unfair, she was going to ask to be withdrawn from the show anyway.

“It’s alright sir, I don’t deserve to be in the show anymore,” she muttered.

“Hmm,” muttered Mr Mitchell.

“If it wasn’t so close to the end of term you might have got suspended Julie you know that?”

“I know that sir,” she muttered.

“As it is, you will both be coming here tomorrow night for detention.”

“And you have to apologise to Athene Julie.”

“She’s already done that sir,” said Athene quietly.

“I should ruddy well hope so,” said Mr Mitchell.

“Julie, you have two parents who cater to your every whim, not everyone is quite so lucky. Athene had very few memories of her parents, and now she has even less!”

“I know I really am sorry Athene!”

“It’s ok,” shrugged Athene.

“Just to let you know,” muttered Athene, “if you’d actually asked, I would have let you borrow them.”

Charlie and Harry had to do their best to fight back a quick laugh, and Julie blushed deeply.

At this moment Mr Wells came rushing into the room having just heard the whole thing.

“Michael!” he said breathlessly, “you cant seriously think about pulling Julie out of the show!”

“I don’t have to,” said Mr Mitchell.

Mr Wells sighed in relief.

“She already pulled out herself.”

“She what!” yelled Mr Wells.

“But they’re the pinnacle of the whole show! Without them the whole second half falls to pieces! We need them as a transition, so the others have time to change!”

“It’s up to her not me,” sighed Mr Mitchell, “she already knows what’s she’s done is wrong!”

“Look Julie I know what you did was wrong! But you can’t just let me down like this!”

“I don’t deserve to be in show sir!” cried Julie looking up at him tears in her eyes.

“Julie, if you pull out now, I don’t have time to replace you! Even if there was someone else who could fill in which there isn’t, they couldn’t learn the routine on time!”

“I know that!”

“You’re not just letting me down, you’re letting the whole school down!”

Julie took a deep breath and looked between Mr Mitchell and Mr Wells, almost as if unsure which one to listen to.

“Tell you what,” sighed Mr Mitchell, “two hours of lines tomorrow night and we’ll forget the whole thing.”

“And um, I won’t ring your parents to cancel the shoes.”

“I just hope you’ve learnt your bloody lesson this time.”  
“Yes sir of course sir!” she stammered.

“I really am sorry Athens!”

“I know,” said Athene smiling slightly, “I know how important this thing is to you.”

“And you young lady,” he said looking at Charlie, “learn to keep your temper!”

“Yes sir,” nodded Charlie.

“And remember,” he said smirking, “no tackling off the rugby pitch!”

“Yes sir!” she chuckled.


	13. Chapter 13

All the packing was done before the parents arrived. Julie was just practising her ballet barefoot with Mark one last time.

“I think you might be needing these Julie dear,” chuckled a voice.

“Daddy!” she screamed stopping her practising and rushing over to him.

“Hello sweetheart,” chuckled Mr Fforbes Hamilton giving her a huge hug.

“You ready to knock their socks off?” he asked as he passed her her new shoes.

“Ginger and I are always ready,” nodded Mark.

“Well we’d best get going then!”

Speech day was a huge success, Athene got the prize for English for the Upper Third form, and Anthony got the prize for maths.

As Athene walked up to the stage to collect her prize, there was a loud cheering from the audience.

“That’s my Cariad!” called Major Richards, “knew you had it in you!”

Athene blushed somewhat embarrassed but waved at her grandparents as she walked past.

Nick got the Upper Fifth prize for Perseverance, because he had worked so hard for his GCE O exams, and Simon got the sports cup.

After all the prizes had been handed out then there was the Speech Day entertainment, which was as always, a great success.

Then they were all going home for the holidays.

“See you in September Athy!” said Charlie giving Athene a hug as they all said goodbye on the driveway.

“You promise you’re going to write every day?” asked Anthony with his hands-on Athene’s shoulders.

“Of course,” said Athene shaking her head.

“We’ll drop her off at yours for August,” chuckled Major Richards as he finished loading the luggage.

The Summer holidays were two months long and seeing as she had so few friends at home, the Pennington’s had offered to have Athene for the whole of August.

“Bye Mark!” said Athene a hug.

“You sure you’ve got to go back to Wales?” asked Mark not letting her out of the hug.

“Let the poor kid go Marky,” chuckled Simon, “you’ll see her next month!”

The Pennington’s waved Athene goodbye as she drove away from the drive.

They all drove back to the house and talked about their holiday plans over dinner.

“Ginger and I are going to practise every day!”

“And here I was thinking you two were already perfect!” said Simon.

“You can never practise too much,” said Mark.

“That’s perfectly fine Mark, but if you want to spend time with Athene when she comes next month, you’re going to have to get your homework done!”

Mark groaned.

“There isn’t all that much of it,” muttered Anthony, “if you get on with it will only take you a few days.”

After dinner, Mark and Anthony were starting to get their unpacking done and Simon showed up their room.

“How do I look boys?”

Simon had oiled his hair with copious amounts of hair gel. He was wearing a pair of jeans with a white t-shirt and his leather jacket. He was clearly trying his hardest to find the polar opposite from his school uniform.

“The only thing you’re missing is some make up,” said Mark, “maybe Julie would let you borrow some!”

“Ha ha very funny,” drawled Simon.

“I’ve got to go and see Cels, she’s been waiting for me to come home, I’m taking her to the flicks in Horsham.”

“Lucky you,” muttered Mark.

“Ta ta lads,” he smirked as he left, “enjoy the unpacking!”

“Swarmy twat!” shouted Mark out his bedroom door as his brother left.

“Mark Pennington get down here now!” shouted Mr Pennington from downstairs.

Mark had gone paper white, his voice had clearly travelled further than he thought it would.


	14. Chapter 14

Athene woke up and gave a small yawn. It was still a while before breakfast so she had plenty of time to write to Anthony.

She lay down on her bed and got out her writing box, with her envelopes, stamps and paper in it. She lent on the box as she wrote.

10th July 1953

Dear Anthony,

I hope you’re all well, I haven’t got your first letter yet, so I presume that either you’re busy or the post is late as usual. Probably a combination of the two!

The weather is really good this Summer which means that instead of being stuck inside trying to shelter from the rain we’ve been having all kinds of fun.

Me and the other kids on the base have been going swimming in the camp pool nearly every day. But the best bit has been the rugby.

I know you prefer cricket. I’ll never understand why you like cricket. It looks so ruddy boring! Just standing around for hours on end, nothing ever seems to happen!

We’re starting off the annual Pembrokeshire base rugby tournament this afternoon. Everyone joins in, the tiny kids who are only five and get carried around the pitch whilst they carry the ball, to the retired Captains and Majors, who drive in specially just to join in. Rugby fortnight is the official start of the Summer holidays at the base and it’s so much fun!

Grandpa been picked to be one of the referees, and he’s been helping me practise for the last few days.

Granny, just like every year is trying to talking me out of taking part, but Grandpa keeps backing me up.

“Don’t worry she’s not going to get knobbled, I’m reffing. She’s taken part in it ever year before now and she’s not got hurt yet. Besides if you think you can keep Danny’s daughter off the rugby pitch, you’re crazy! She’s a Richard’s through and through!”

To make up for all the time I’m spending on the pitch though, Granny’s trying to teach me quilting and dressmaking in the evenings. She taught me how to crochet and knit before boarding school. Trying to turn me into a proper young lady I think, heavens knows why! 

I don’t mind it really, it’s kind of fun! But I think that Charlie would rather die than having daily sewing lessons!

Miss you loads, say hi to Mark and Julie, Athene.

As she finished writing she could hear movements downstairs.

She quickly folded the letter away and addressed the envelope.

She brushed her hair into two neat plaits tying them at the top and bottom. Her hair was getting quite long now, and was an indistinct colour, somewhere between ginger and auburn, Granny called it copper coloured, but Harry called it rusty which was new nickname for her. Then pulled on an old pair of shorts and a green and navy striped jersey.

Then she headed down to breakfast where Granny and Grandpa where already sat.

“I don’t know why you have to dress like a boy sweetheart,” muttered Mrs Richards as she sat down.

“You’ve got such nice dresses, and you’re really quite pretty.”

Athene blushed slightly as she ate her toast.

“Leave off Glad,” chuckled Major Richards, “you cant expect Athens to play rugby in a dress. It would get ripped to pieces and the material would get ruined.”

“I’d rather she didn’t play in the first place,” muttered Mrs Richards, “coming home every day caked in mud and covered in bruises, it’s not lady like!”  
“She’s a Richards,” said Major Richards firmly, “and Richards’.”

“Play rugby,” sighed Mrs Richards.

They had the same argument so many times, but he always won.

“I’ve got to go post my letter,” she said jumping up from the table as she finished her breakfast.

“I’ll see you on the pitch in one hour, they start picking teams at nine so don’t be late.”

“I know!” giggled Athene.

She gave her grandparents both a hug and a kiss.

Before pulling on her shoes.

“Don’t forget your spikes!” called Major Richards.

Athene grabbed her muddy rugby boots from outside the door on her way out of the house. 

Granny had a firm rule, if they insisted on playing rugby, they weren’t going to track their muddy boots into the house, so the rugby boots always got left on the doorstep next to the wellies.

She half ran half skipped her way down to the base post office. Holding her letter in one hand and hanging her boots over her shoulder with the other.

There was quite few young privates going for an early morning run after breakfast as it was already eight o’clock.

“Morning Athene!” called one of the sergeants as he ran past with a group of young recruits.

“Morning Sergeant Davies!” she called as he ran past.

She went into the post office, where Captain Llewelyn was on duty behind the desk.

“Morning Athene!” he called cheerfully, “got another letter for that young man of yours?”

Athene giggled as she handed him her letter and placed it on the counter.

It was only a quarter past eight so she had time to stay and chat. Captain David Llewelyn had been her Dad’s best friend, they had fought in the war together, but David had got invalided out and now helped with the training of new recruits.

“Has the post been in yet?” she asked, as she hitched herself up onto the counter and swung her legs back and forth.

“Still waiting for that first letter eh?” he asked knowingly.

Athene nodded.

“Well I might not have any letters for you yet, but I might have something else hidden around here somewhere.”

“Now where did I put it?” he asked searching his pocket dramatically.

“Don’t be silly!” giggled Athene.

“Ah there it is!” he beamed as he pulled a blackcurrant and liquorice boiled sweet out from behind her ear.

“My favourite!” she beamed giving him a hug.

“Now that is a surprise, I had no idea!”

At this point the mail arrived, and two privates came in with bulging bags full of post.

“You’re going to have to come back later Athens,” said Captain Llewelyn as he came limping out from behind the counter, “it’s going to take us a while to sort through this lot.”

Athene looked somewhat disappointed. But then she noticed on the top of one of the open bags, was a bulging letter with some very familiar handwriting.

“Wait a second,” said Captain Llewelyn as he picked up the letter, “what have we here?”

“Here you go Cariad!” he said giving her the letter as she hopped down from the counter.

“And give them hell for me on the pitch!” he called as she ran off so that she wouldn’t be late.

“They won’t know what hit em!” she yelled as she ran into the distance.

She got down to the pitch with about a minute to spare, there was about sixty people of various sizes and ages congregated on the field, enough for four full teams of fifteen. They were going to be changing teams around every day, it was all just for fun really.

Athene knelt down on the edge of the pitch and started to lace up her boots.

“You won’t be needing those kiddo,” said a large boy as she did up her shoes.

The boy looked about sixteen and was tall and well built. His family were clearly new to the base, as here girls certainly did play rugby.

“You not?” she asked standing back up.

“Because girls don’t play rugby!” he scoffed.

Athene looked around the field, and she would beg to differ because there was five other teenage girls getting their boots on.

“Go home and learn how to knit!” he laughed.

“For your information I already can knit!” she returned, “and I want to play rugby!”

“Hey Richards!” called Michael Evans walking over.

There were five Evans brothers aged between seventeen and eleven including a set of fifteen-year-old twins. They had only got back from school the day before. Michael was thirteen and only a year older than Athene.

“You ready to show that idiot how to play rugby?” chuckled Michael.

“Anytime, anyplace!” she said ominously.

“You ready Cariad!” asked Major Richards.

“Can you look after this for me Grandpa?” asked Athene as she passed him the letter.

“Of course, sweetheart,” he chuckled.

They picked teams, and unsurprisingly Athene was picked amongst the first people.

“Right!” said Richard Evans their team captain as they gathered in a team huddle, “there’s half an hour each way. Athens you’re our winger so when we chuck you the ball run like there’s no tomorrow.”

Athene nodded.

“Let’s show these idiots how to play rugby!” he yelled.

It was a long day, but Athene had missed this. 

She got to play rugby at school, but never really got to be in any proper matches because girls couldn’t play on the school teams. 

At four o’clock, Athene and Major Richards traipsed back up to the house.

She was caked in mud from head to foot and was going to have some serious bruising in the morning, but she didn’t care, she hadn’t had so much fun in ages.

“For gods sake!” muttered Mrs Richards, “get upstairs with you, the bath’s already run.”

“Thanks granny,” said Athene as she pulled off her boots outside and then ran upstairs.

She came back downstairs half an hour later mud free in a clean summer dress.

“That’s much better,” said Mrs Richards contentedly.

For the past few evenings Athene had been practising her stitching on scrap material on the sewing machine so that she didn’t get it wrong when she started sewing properly.

But tonight she was going to learn how to put together a dress and follow a pattern and she couldn’t wait.

“Are we forgetting something?” asked Major Richards as she sat down at the kitchen table as Mrs Richards made the dinner.

“Forgetting what?” she asked confused.

He pulled a fat letter out of his shirt pocket.

Athene’s mouth dropped open, she had been so excited playing rugby that she had completely forgotten about Anthony’s letter.

She ripped open the letter and found page upon page of writing in Anthony’s neat handwriting.

July 5th 1953

Dear Athene,

Sorry it’s taken me so long to write this first letter, but there’s so much going on I just didn’t know where to bloody start!

The day after we got back, Dad called us all into the sitting room when he got back from work, and asked to see if we could find something different.

It was Nick who noticed that the tele was different.

We’d been begging for a colour television for years, but Mrs Brown kept on saying we couldn’t have one. She didn’t want us getting square eyes, and she thought if we had a colour tele we’d never turn it off.

But of course, the coronation was a few months back, and Mrs Brown wanted to see the Queen in colour. So we’ve finally got it! There is a colour television in the sitting room!

Mrs. Brown may have had a point though, it hardly ever gets turned off. Julie and Mark watch it a lot trying to see their favourite film stars. Simon seems to spend every spare moment when he’s not out with Celia watching it as well.

Speaking of Celia, we’ve still to meet her yet. Simon goes out with her nearly every day, but always goes around to her house. Nick pointed her out in church to us, but Mark thinks that Simon is worried that we’re going to scare her off if she comes around to her house.

To be fair, I think that Fred and Ginger could scare off any girlfriend.

Simon so far this Summer is to quote Mark being a ‘swarmy twat!” 

I can see where he’s coming from, he keeps on swanking around the village in his leather jacket and acting likes he’s better than the rest of us.

Speaking of Simon, that reminds me, you might want to be careful when you come around next month. Dad is going to try and teach both Simon and Nick haw to drive the car this Summer. So be careful of you might get run over!

Mark tried to persuade Dad to teach him to drive as well but seeing as we won’t even be thirteen until October, Dad thinks that he’s far too young to learn how to drive, and to be honest I agree with him. Just imagine Marky behind the wheel of a car!

When Mark and Julie aren’t watching the new tele they’re practising their dancing and singing. They’re getting quite good! 

Besides, if I get bored with reading, I can always help them practise by accompanying them on the piano.

I know what you’re going to say. How can you get bored with reading? 

Well I don’t but it sometimes makes a nice change of scenery.

I can’t wait for you to get here next month! 

Dad’s going to take us all camping for the last fortnight in August as always. He always takes a fortnight off work. and we leave all our mod cons such as radios behind for two weeks. The last fortnight before school is the best part of the whole holiday, we cook over a campfire, and go for long walks and go swimming in the river!

I miss you loads, hope you’re alright in Wales, Anthony.


	15. Chapter 15

Athene was standing out by the car, and Major Richards had been helping her load all the luggage into the car.

Mrs Richards was frantically checking she’d packed everything.

“You packed plenty of quilts? I don’t want you getting cold!”

“Yes Granny,” muttered Athene.

“Your uniforms?”

“Hmm,” she muttered.

“All your books?”

“I’ve packed at least twenty books,” sighed Athene smiling slightly.

“You’ve done your homework? Goodness knows how you’ll get any homework done at the Pennington’s; you’ll be too busy skylarking!”

“Yes Granny, I’ve done and packed all my homework.”

“Where’s your hat and coat?” she mumbled looking around.

Athene shook her head, Granny was a big traditionalist, and she felt it was not proper to leave the house without a hat and coat.

“They’re on the back seat,” chuckled Athene, “my school hat and coat are in my trunk!”

“Wait!” she exclaimed, “have you got your handywork?”

“Of course, I do,” said Athene who was hardly going to leave her sewing behind.

She loved sewing almost as much as she did reading.

“Well,” she muttered straightening Athene’s dress, “I suppose you’ll do.”

“She’s fine Glad!” said Major Richards, “and if she has forgotten anything, we can send it on.”

“Oh my God!” gasped Mrs Richards, “your ration book!”

“I never go anywhere without it,” laughed Athene.

“She’ll be asking if you’ve packed your gas mask next,” smirked Major Richards.

At this moment Captain Llewelyn came limping over to the car with his walking stick.

“Hello Athy!” he called.

“Was worried I’d miss you!”

“Stupid leg,” he muttered, glaring down at his gammy leg.

“You alright Davy?” asked Major Richards as he loaded the last of the bags.

“I’m great thanks Morgan, thought I was going to miss Athy though.”

“I was never going to leave without saying goodbye to you!” giggled Athene giving him a huge hug and quick kiss on the forehead.

“You’re more like your Mam every day you know,” he beamed brushing a loose lock of hair off of her face.

“Now remember, however much time you spend with those southerner friends of yours, you’re Welsh, you’ve got fire in your blood.”

“We are descended from dragons,” continued Athene, who had heard this speech many times, “and warriors and princes.”

“Right you are Cariad!” said Captain Llewelyn giving her a last hug.

Athene got into the back of the car, and her grandparents got in the front. 

She leant out the window of the back of the car, waving goodbye to Captain Llewelyn and the rest of her friends as they drove away.

She always felt slightly strange about leaving Wales, and as they crossed the bridge to England, she felt like she was leaving part of her heart behind with her.

She wasn’t too upset though because she was going to see her friends again.

In the late afternoon, the car pulled into the driveway of The Yews.

It was a huge old house, which was at least four times the size of the Richards’ house

“Are you sure we’ve got the right place?” asked Mrs Richards looking up at the house not getting out of the car just in case they had the wrong address.

“I think so,” laughed Athene.

She was looking up at the attic window, where Mark and Julie were hanging out the window waving frantically.

“Athene!” screamed Julie as she waved.

“Hi!” called Athene waving up at her as she got out of the car.

“Athene!” yelled Anthony as he came charging out of the house.

Anthony picked up Athene and threw her in the air.

“Calm down Anthony!” she laughed, “put me down!”

“I’m sorry,” he laughed putting her down and hugging her, “I’ve just missed you so much.”

Nick came out of the house and helped carry the luggage into the house. Mr Pennington was still at work in London and wouldn’t be back for another hour.

“Look after yourself alright sweetheart?” asked Major Richards giving her one last hug.

“We’ll see you at Christmas darling,” said Mrs Richards struggling to hold back tears.

Athene and Anthony waved the car goodbye, chasing the car up the drive as it drove away.

“Come on Athens,” beamed Anthony, “I want to show you around!”

Anthony grabbed Athene by the hand and practically dragged her into the house.

Anthony dragged her past the pile of luggage in the hallway and through to the kitchen where Mrs Brown was making the dinner.

“So this must be Athene,” beamed Mrs Brown.

“Yes mam,” said Athene nodding.

“I’ve heard so much about you,” she beamed and taking a proper look at her, “even more beautiful than Mark and Anthony described.”

Athene blushed almost as red as his hair.

“Go on Tony,” said Mrs Brown, “show Athene up to her room.”

Anthony was so excited and his legs were so long, that Athene was having to run to keep up with him.

Every single corridor of all three floors was jampacked with bookcases. Some were filled with manuscripts sometimes stacked three deep. Others were filled with books, some paperback others hardback, fiction and non-fiction, every kind of book imaginable!

They reached the top of the first staircase where there was a landing and two smaller sets of stairs leading off from it, one led to three bedrooms, and the other set led to the other half of the floor including another four bedrooms, two fully fitted bathrooms and Anthony’s linen cupboard and the staircase up to the attic.

“Your house is so huge!” exclaimed Athene.

“You’re up here,” said Anthony going up a smaller set of stairs to the attic.

“Brownie wanted to put you up here, so you could get some privacy, she knows that this house can be a hectic sometimes!”

“That’s the room we use for storage, and Mark and Julie use for practising in,” said Anthony pointing to one of the two rooms in the attic, “this is your room, and that’s your bathroom.”

“I’ve got my own bathroom,” she stammered as she walked into the bedroom.

It was a large room, nearly twice the size of her room at home with a slanted ceiling. There was a large double bed with pale pink floral bed sheets. The walls were painted a light cream, and there was a rose carpet on the floor. The was a desk, wardrobe, chest of drawers, even a vanity table!

Not to mention the fact that there was a bookcase taking up half a wall full of assorted books.

Athene’s mouth had dropped open slightly as she looked around.

“Do you like it?” 

Like it? She thought. It was a teenage girl’s dream; it couldn’t have been better if she’d picked everything out herself.

“I love it Anthony!” she exclaimed.

“But why is everything so pink! You don’t have any sisters! Hell, you don’t even have any cousins!”

“Mum really wanted a girl,” chuckled Anthony, “and she seemed to think that they might want to get away from the chaos of all the boys. So, she decorated this room, she died before we could use it.”

“It’s perfect,” breathed Athene as she looked at the rosebud curtains and the window seat looking out over the grounds. 

They had a lake she thought as she looked out the window! Of course, they had a ruddy lake! Nothing was going to surprise her now!

She had known that the Pennington’s were rich, but she hadn’t realised to what extent! It made her wonder quite how well off her other friends such as Julie and Harry were.

She wasn’t jealous or anything, she wouldn’t have traded her own family for anything in the world.

“Dinners in five minutes!” called Mark as he and Simon dropped off the trunk.

Athene whipped her head around from where she had been looking out the window.

“I’ll race you,” said Anthony his face splitting into a grin.

“What about no running in the corridors?” called Athene as he sprinted from the room.

“We’re not at school anymore stupid!” called Mark as he overtook his twin brother.


	16. Chapter 16

Today was a very important day, it was the first Sunday since Athene had come to the Pennington’s.

She had been staying with them for nearly a week now, but she could still hardly believe how huge and comfy her bed was.

She pulled herself out of bed and put on a fresh clean dress with her school shoes for church, before heading downstairs.

She could hear a small argument coming from Mark and Anthony’s room.

“What do you not understand about Sunday Tony!” Mark was grumbling.

“It is the God’s day of rest, ergo, let me sleep!”

“Don’t try and use Latin on me to get your way,” muttered Anthony.

“Bugger, I thought that might have worked,” sighed Mark before shutting his eyes and getting a few more minutes shut eye.

“Hey Athene,” beamed Anthony bumping into Athene in the corridor.

Anthony had just finished getting dressed for the day and was wearing his Sunday suit.

“Will I do?” muttered Athene.

She didn’t have very much nice clothes; her old Sunday dress was now far too short and had had to be cut up for quilting material. There hadn’t been any ration coupons left for a new dress. She was wearing a plain blue striped summer dress and was worried that next to all the Pennington’s in their Sunday suits she would stick out like a sore pin.

“You look perfect,” said Anthony shaking his head, “you always do.”

“You’re neat and clean,” said Mrs Brown as they got down to the kitchen, “which is more than enough. After all cleanliness is next to godliness!”

“Yes Mrs Brown,” they both nodded as they ate their boiled eggs and toast.

“Morning kids!” called Mr Pennington as he sat down to his paper.

“Morning Dad!” beamed Anthony.

“Got enough hair gel in Simon?” asked Mark as Simon showed up for breakfast late as usual.

“Shut it you!” muttered Simon.

“Now then I want you all to be on your best behaviour today,” said Simon.

“Or else,” he said ominously.

“Or else what?” asked Mark curiously a smirk on his face.

“Or else you won’t get to meet her,” said Mr Pennington from behind his paper.

Mark shut up very quickly at this point.

Simon and Celia had been going out for eight months now, but Celia had still not met the family. It wasn’t that Simon was ashamed of his family, but Celia was an only child and the house was so chaotic, he hadn’t wanted to scare her off.

But today after church, Celia was coming for Sunday lunch with family and staying for tea, before Simon walked her home that evening.

Anthony put his hand in the air.

“Yes?” said Simon through seethed teeth.

“Would it be behaving myself if I got my camera out later?”

“She probably won’t mind as long as she gets a copy of the photos,” said Simon, “but don’t jump out and scare her!”

“Message received and understood,” said Anthony giving his brother a brief salute.

“Right hats and coats gang, time for church!”

“Can I drive?” asked Simon.

Mr Pennington had been teaching Nick and Simon how to drive, and Simon had been seeming to get the hang of it. It was only a few minutes to church; how badly could it go?

“No going out of first gear,” said Mr Pennington firmly.

If there was going to be an accident with the whole family in the car, he didn’t want them to be going fast enough for anyone to get hurt.

“You’ve got a deal,” chuckled Simon shaking his Dad’s hand.

It turned out that Mr Pennington had no reason to worry, Simon managed everyone to church in one piece and drove very safely.

At the end of church, a very glamorous girl with blonde permed hair came over to them, she had cornflower blue eyes, and was wearing a neat navy and cream two-piece matching skirt and shirt with a matching hat and blazer. She was only seventeen, but she was very sophisticated and fashionable.

“Everyone, this is Celia Bell,” said Simon with his arm around Celia.

“Celia, this is everyone.”

“Well hello everyone,” laughed Celia earnestly.

“Now let me see,” she muttered.

“You’re Mr Pennington of course,” said Celia holding out her hand.

“It is an honour to meet you,” said Mr Pennington shaking her hand.

“You’re Mrs Brown who according to Simon makes the best apple pie in the county.”

Mrs Brown blushed slightly as she smiled.

“You must be Nick the prefect and the brains in the older Pennington brothers.”

Nick laughed slightly.

“You two are clearly Fred and Ginger,” said Celia smiling at Mark and Julie who had come over to get a look at Simon’s girlfriend.

“What gave it away?” asked Mark his eyes lit up like stars.

“Because you were whispering to each other all the way through the service, Anthony’s far well behaved to do such a thing!”

Mark laughed, what she was saying was true.

“Which means that you two are Anthony and Athene, the two bookworms and scholars in the outfit.”

“Full marks,” said Nick impressed.

“Welcome to the family,” said Mark holding out his hand.

They all went back to the house and had an amazing afternoon, Mark and Anthony, showed her around the grounds, and the house.

Celia was rightly impressed with their colour television, and she had even brought her old film magazines with her which she gave to Mark, who warmed up to her instantly.

Anthony recorded the whole afternoon on his camera for posterity.

The afternoon was a great success, and somehow, they hadn’t scared Celia away, and she was looking forward to coming back another day.

Celia was warmly welcomed into the family and spent many more days hanging out with them, helping Julie and Mark with their practising or helping Athene with her sewing.


	17. Chapter 17

The last fortnight of the holiday were amazing, they spent a whole fortnight camping, wading in rivers, and going fishing and then cooking the fish over the camp fire. Athene had never had so much fun in her life!

But the last day of the holidays had to come, and here they all were back in their uniforms with their luggage in the hallway.

“Ok there’s too many of you to fit in the Rover with all the luggage,” said Mr Pennington, “so Fforbes Hamilton’s have agreed to take Mark and all his luggage, they’re going to be following straight after us.”

“Right you know the drill, let’s get going!”

They managed to load the six sets of trunks and assorted luggage into the two cars. Just when they were about to get in the car, then Celia came running down the drive.

Celia was a day girl at a closer school, so although she also started back tomorrow, she didn’t have ot be dropped off.

“Simon!” she called as she pelted down the gravel.

“I thought I was going to miss you!” she said breathlessly as she stopped running.

“I was never going to leave you without saying goodbye,” said Simon looking into her eyes.

“We said goodbye yesterday,” she laughed.

“I just wanted to see you one last time!”

“I know,” chuckled Simon.

“Promise to write every day?”

“Promise,” he nodded.

Celia’s face lit up as Simon pulled her in for a long kiss.

“Ok Romeo Juliet,” said Mark.

“I’m afraid our fond lovers most be parted by a great distance of several counties,” said Mark dramatically.

“Shall they ever meet again?” asked Julie.

“Tune in next week and find out,” smirked Anthony.

Simon broke apart from Celia and looked like he was about to was about to say some very choice words to his siblings when Celia put a finger to his lips.

“I’ll see at Christmas Simon,” she said smiling at him.

Simon gave her one last kiss before getting into the front of the car.

Celia chased the two cars down the driveway and waved them away with tears in her eyes.

When they pulled up at the school there was already half a dozen families dropping off their children, including the Mackenzie’s.

“Julie!” Charlie screamed rushing to open the door before the car even stopped properly.

“Mark!” she exclaimed as they both pulled her in for a hug.

“Am I the only one who hasn’t grown this Summer,” sighed Athene disappointed.

It seemed she was destined to remain the short member of the group for evermore. 

“Don’t worry you’ll catch up,” said Anthony putting his arm around her.

“Besides if you grew too much,” said Mr Davies, “you couldn’t be my favourite flyhalf.”

“Thank you sir,” she laughed as they pulled their trunks up to their rooms.

It felt really weird not being the youngest anymore, they were now the in the rooms that were the second furthest down the corridor.

“Harry!” said Mark noticing Harry in the dorm who was unpacking his trunk.

“And so the gang were back together,” beamed Mark as they all had a group hug.

“Hey Rusty, see you haven’t grown yet.”

“It means I can squeeze into places you lot can’t,” she pointed out.

They all split to unpack. Athene was just unfolding her photographs from her quilt and putting her quilt on top of the bed, when there was a soft knock on the already open door.

The five girls turned around and saw that there were five bright shining faces looking at them from the doorway.

“Oh ye gods there’s more of them,” sighed Mark who had been playing his guitar on Julie’s bed.

“You lot must be the new first years,” said Charlie looking at them curiously.

The girls nodded.

“I thought this school already had enough girls,” grumbled Mark.

“Go away Fred,” said Julie simply.

“See you later Ginger,” said Mark kissing Julie on the cheek as he and his guitar left the room.

“Ignore him,” said Charlie, “Mark’s a prat!”

“Am not!” called Mark from across the corridor.

“He is!” mouthed Julie.

“Are you lot excited about starting school then?” asked Lizzie.

They all nodded eagerly.

“Is it true we get to play rugby?” asked a girl with a ginger ponytail.

“You’d better believe it,” beamed Athene.

“Cool,” breathed another girl.

“Isn’t it a bit weird there being so many boys and so few girls though?” asked a girl with blonde plaits.

“You get used it,” said Lucy.

“Besides can you think of another school where girls can play rugby and join the military cadets?” asked Charlie.

“We can join the cadets?” asked the girl with the ginger ponytail.

“Of course, you bloody can,” said Charlie, “anything boys can do, we can do better!”

The five girls seemed significantly less nervous about starting at their new school and went back to their own dorm.

“Hey guess what?” asked Charlie as they kept unpacking.

“What?” chuckled Athene.

“The Dragon is going to let us start shooting practise this term.”

“Do you think we’d best warn matron?” asked Julie.

“Warn her about what?” asked Charlie deeply offended.

“Oh we’re not worried about you,” said Athene, “but if Graham trips again but he’s holding a gun!”

“I’ll make sure he’s only given blanks,” chuckled Charlie.


	18. Chapter 18

As the weather started to get colder again, the Rugby season started. Harry had been picked for the first fifteen under thirteen school rugby team as winger and opening kicker. He had even been picked for team captain!

This Wednesday was the school’s first big match of the year. The Aldershot Grammar was coming for the match that afternoon. 

They could hardly concentrate in class that day, and Harry kept on looking longingly out to the pitch out the classroom window.

“Today we are going to be starting on the future tense,” said Mr Mitchell from the front of the class. “Something that hasn’t happened yet, but will happen, I shall love, he shall have.”

“You shall pay attention Harry,” said Mr Mitchell walking over to Harry’s desk and hitting a book against the desk.

“Sorry sir?” said Harry snapping his attention back to the lesson.

“We are starting on the future tense,” said Mr Mitchell again, “he shall do, they shall want, we shall go.”

“I think you lot are already thinking about the future though aren’t you,” he chuckled looking around at the class.

“The very near future of this afternoon.”

“An example of the future tense is, you shall play rugby this afternoon.”

“Can anyone think of anymore examples?”

Mark shot his hand in the air.

“I shall be a famous dancer!”

“I’m sure you will Mark,” he laughed.

“We shall beat the Aldershot Grammar this afternoon!” called Malcom.

“And Harry shall score the winning try!” beamed Graham looking over at Harry.

Harry had gone paper white, the whole school seemed to be depending on him. What if they didn’t win? The whole school would hate him.

“You all seem to be very preoccupied today,” said Mr Mitchell shaking his head, “far too busy thinking about the match this afternoon, but as for now, Latin!”

The class groaned slightly as they copied down the future tense for To Love.

Finally after what felt like a decade, the bell rang for the end of class, and the Lower Fourth rushed down for lunch.

Wednesday afternoon’s where always very exciting. As there were matches that afternoon, the whole school came out to watch and there were no lessons. If you weren’t in a match, you could either practise on one of the spare fields or watch the other matches. 

Mark and Julie usually slipped away for the afternoon and practised their tap dancing or ballet. Mr Davies didn’t really care, as long as it was something to do with sport!

Harry hardly touched his lunch but just pushed his corned beef and boiled potatoes around the plate.

“Look I know the food’s not great Harry, but you’ve got to eat,” said Anthony.

“I’m not hungry,” muttered Harry.

Harry had gone so white that it looked like he might faint.

“Harry, we can’t have you getting sick on us,” said Charlie patting him on the back.

“The whole schools depending on you,” agreed Athene.

“So eat up,” beamed Mark, “our resident Rugby star has to keep his strength up.”

“But that’s exactly the point!” exclaimed Harry in frustration.

“The whole school’s depending on me! If we lose today, it’s going to be all my fault!”

“Harry Knowles,” said Athene firmly, “how many people are on a Rugby team?”

Harry looked at her slightly confused.

“Well fifteen without reserves.”

“Exactly,” nodded Anthony, “however well the match goes today it’s not completely down to you.”

“But I’m the team captain!” he said getting exasperated, “and the best scorer!”

“If we lose it’s all on me,” he sighed.

“Harry,” said Charlie, “we don’t care if Aldershot win the match 21 to nothing.”

Harry flinched slightly at the mere thought of such a defeat.

“As long as you try your hardest, we’ll be proud of you.”

“Thanks Charlie,” said Harry smiling slightly before diving into his lunch.

After lunch, the visiting teams arrived. There were three matches today all against Aldershot Grammar, the Under 13’s, Under 16’s, and Under 18’s.

Simon who was now games captain for the whole school was the team captain for the Under 18’s and came running up to Harry who was still looking very nervous.

“You alright Harry, you like you’re about to be sick?”

Harry had been looking at the opposing team, they seemed to be twice his size.

Harry nodded slowly.

“You’ll be fine,” assured Simon patting him on the back before running off back to his team.

“Good luck Harry,” said Anthony giving him a pat on the back as Harry ran off to join the team.

Anthony, Charlie and Athene were standing on the edge of the pitch wrapped up in warm coats, hats and scarfs so that they wouldn’t get cold.

Lizzie and Lucy seemed to have taken it on themselves to become the school head cheerleaders. They didn’t have pompoms or anything but were chanting and shouting for their team so loudly, that it didn’t matter. Some of the new Upper Third girls had joined the impromptu cheerleader group as well.

They tossed a coin between the two teams to decide who got to receive the ball first. The Aldershot team won the toss. But that didn’t matter though. 

The two teams were very well matched, and it was frantic and chaotic match. The ball seemed to be changing teams every couple of minutes and everyone was caked with mud.

There was a minute and a half left until the end of the match, and the score was 22-17, and Aldershot was in the lead.

It wasn’t noticeable that Harry was ghostly white anymore, because he was covered in so much mud.

Malcom threw the ball back to Harry as they were halfway up the pitch.

“Run for it Harry!” screamed Charlie at the top of her lungs.

Harry somehow managed to dodge his way between the opposing team as only he could, and managed to avoid himself getting tackled.

He threw himself and the ball over the line as he reached it straight in the middle of the goal post.

The referee blew his whistle. 

Harry had scored a try, and they were tied, 22-22. The crowd had gone wild!

Harry took a deep breath as the crowd went quiet suddenly.

There was only a few seconds left in the match, just enough for the conversion kick.

He set the ball up for the kick and the whole of the lower school watched on tenterhooks.

“You can do it Harry!” called Charlie.

Harry nodded firmly and kicked the ball, which went flying straight over the goal post, just like it had done in practise.

The whistle was blown for the end of the match. 

They had won! They had won 24-22!

The crowd went wild, people were screaming up and down the pitch, his teammates were trying to lift him in the air, but Harry didn’t notice any of that.

What he did notice was that for some reason, Charlie had come sprinting onto the pitch still wearing her hat and scarf.

“I knew you could do it Harry!” she beamed.

Her cheeks were bright red, half from running, half from the cold.

Charlie brushed the worst of the mud of off Harry’s face.

“You were amazing!” she exclaimed.

Charlie gave Harry a quick kiss on the forehead, and there was a large amount of wolf whistling from the Lower Fourth who had all been watching.

Charlie had forgotten, that nearly half the school were there and blushed tomato red and turned to run off of the pitch.

Harry put a hand on her shoulder to stop her from running away.

Harry looked carefully into Charlie’s face; he had never realised how beautiful she was before. Until today he had always seen as almost like another one of the lads. Oh, he knew Charlie was a girl alright! But he had never realised how beautiful she was until today.

Harry’s hand stroked Charlie’s cheek. He had forgotten that his hands were muddy, and he had now just left a small trail of mud down her cheek, but neither of them seemed to care.

Harry pulled Charlie in for a kiss on the lips, it had never felt so right.

When Charlie and Harry pulled apart, both their faces were covered in mud! But they were both so happy that they just didn’t care!


	19. Chapter 19

Athene was sat on top of her bed, as always, for Late December in Wales it was freezing. 

She was lying on top of her bed wearing a warm jumper and a skirt. She was also wearing pair of fingerless gloves to keep her fingers from getting cold.

25th December 1953

Dear Anthony,

Merry Christmas! I presume that even though it’s only six o’clock in the morning you’ve been up for hours, courtesy of Mark!

This must be one of the only two days of the year it isn’t difficult to get Mark out of bed, today and 19th of October your birthdays. The only reason he doesn’t want to sleep is because he wants his presents!

I hope it’s not as cold for you in Sussex as it is here. I’m having to wear fingerless gloves as I write just so my hands don’t freeze!

We already went to church yesterday, so all we’re going to do today is open presents and have Christmas dinner.

Uncle David is coming around today to celebrate Christmas with us. Even though Dad and David aren’t actually related, he’s always been like a son to Granny and Grandpa.

It keeps on threatening to snow down here, imagine how beautiful a white Christmas could be!

I don’t really want much for Christmas this year, I just want to spend some time with my family.

Hope you get everything that you wanted for Christmas and that you all like the presents I sent with Simon. (I had a feeling if I sent them with anyone else, they’d get opened a week early!)

Miss you loads, send my love to Fred and Ginger, Athene.

Athene took a deep breathe and pulled herself off the bed, and went over to open the window. 

She looked out the window, which showed the hill opposite the base, which was usually full of little white dots that were dozens of sheep. 

But there were no little white dots today, because the whole landscape was covered in pure white snow.

“Granny!” she screamed rushing out of her room, “Grandpa!”

“Good morning Cariad,” muttered Major Richards drowsily from his room down the corridor.

She ran into their room and leapt onto the bed.

“Merry Christmas sweetheart,” said Mrs Richards still half asleep.

“That’s not what I’m excited about!” she giggled.

“It’s been snowing!”

“What?” asked Major Richards rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

“Snowing!” she beamed, “there’s got to be three inches of it!”

Major Richards got out of bed and went over to look out the window pulling on his dressing gown.

“Well if that’s not a Christmas miracle I don’t know what is,” he muttered beaming.

“Athene darling, if you would put the kettle on your Grandfather will be down soon.”

“Ok,” said Athene practically skipping down to the kitchen where she lit the hob carefully and placed the kettle over the hob.

By the time that the kettle had started whistling, Major and Mrs Richards had come back downstairs fully dressed in warm clothes.

“Now then the question is,” said Major Richards, “do we wait for Davy to get here before we open presents?”

“Of course we’re going to wait for Davy to get here Morgan,” muttered Mrs Richards as she put on the toast.

“Well he’s not going to be here for another two hours at least,” he beamed, “how about you and I go and play some rugby Athy?”

“Rugby!” exclaimed Mrs Richards, “in the snow!”

“She’ll get hurt, you’ll slip!”

“It’ll be fine,” shrugged Major Richards, “the snow will make a nice soft landing.”

“You’ll catch your deaths!” she stammered.

“We’ll get changed afterwards; I promise.”

Mrs Richards still looked somewhat unimpressed.

“The minute that David gets here you get back inside, agreed?”

Major Richards and Athene nodded enthusiastically.

They had a quick breakfast before pulling on warm coats and wellie boots over their already warm clothes.

“Don’t get hurt!” said Mrs Richards as she pulled a woolly hat over Athene’s ears.

Athene and Major Richards played rugby in the snow and were soon joined by other people from the base who had wanted to go out and play in the snow, there was soon an impromptu match in the middle of the base in the snow.

They only stopped two hours later, when impatient mothers and wives started to come outside, to pull in their husbands and children to open their Christmas presents.

Athene and her Grandpa were both soaking wet and freezing cold.

“For gods sake,” muttered Mrs Richards as she helped Athene pull of her wet clothes and hung them over the fire.

She had to take off everything from her hat and coat, to her jumper, tights and skirt. All she had left on were her underthing’s, but fortunately Mrs Richards had been expecting this and had been warming a fresh set of clothes for them both over the fire.

She quickly pulled on a fresh pair of tights, and a warm skirt and jumper.

Just as she was pulling her jumper on over the top of her head, Captain Llewelyn came limping into the sitting room.

“Uncle Davy!” she shouted as her head popped out of the hole on her jumper.

She ran over him and he lifted her up.

“Hiya sweetheart,” he chuckled giving her a hug.

“See you two have been busy Morgan,” he chuckled as Major Richards put on his warm jumper.

There was now a several rows of damp clothes drying in front of the fire.

“Look how big you’ve gotten!” he chuckled as he sat down in one of the two armchairs by the fire.

“Not big enough,” she grumbled.

“You’re thin as a whippet dear,” muttered Mrs Richards, “bloody rationing!”

“You’ve always been small; it hasn’t upset you before.”

“Oh, I don’t mind being skinny, that’s bad enough but I can live with it, but everyone towers over me.”

“Well boys are taller than girls Cariad,” chuckled Major Richards.

“Even the girls are taller than me,” she sighed, “Charlie’s a foot taller than me if she’s an inch, and Julie’s parents let her wear heels.”

“Not for school surely!” said Mrs Richards astounded.

“Well no, but she’s four inches taller than me without the heels,” she shrugged.

“I’ll never hit five foot,” she muttered slightly sulkily.

“Well I can think of one good thing of being tiny,” said Captain Llewelyn.

“What?” she asked looking up at him.

“If you weren’t so tiny, you wouldn’t still be able to do this.”

He lifted her up off the floor by his feet as Athene giggled, and sat her down on his good leg. 

“Besides,” said Major Richards, “if you weren’t so tall you wouldn’t be as good a flyhalf!”

Athene got off Captain Llewelyn’s lap still giggling and knelt down next to him as Major Richards handed out the presents.

Athene got her regular small presents. She got a pound of blackcurrant and liquorices, and a tin of Welsh Cakes.

Grandpa had got her a copy of The Mabinogi, which were Welsh myths.

Captain Llewelyn passed her two small parcels.

“You’re a proper young lady now,” he said, “you need to look like one.”

In the first parcel there was a pair of earings which had small moonstones like the necklace from her Dad. She had managed to talk Granny into letting her pierce her ears last Summer.

In the second parcel was a small bottle of lavender water.

“Thank you, Uncle Davy,!” she beamed giving him a huge hug.

“For goodness same David,” muttered Mrs Richards shaking her head, “she’s only twelve! She doesn’t need perfume!”

“Twelve and a half,” corrected Captain Llewelyn, “and she gets prettier and more like her Mam by the day!”

Mrs Richards smiled slightly and didn’t say anything more on the subject, as she passed Athene her presents.

There was her usual jumper, hat and scarf which were forest green that year to bring out the colour of her eyes.

Mrs Richards then passed her a parcel. Athene took off the paper and found the most beautiful material she had ever seen. There was a light cream silk material and also one that was navy blue embroidered with tiny white flowers.

“They’re beautiful!” she gushed giving her a hug.

“I thought they might make a nice blouse and skirt, something a bit more grown up. You’re getting very good at dressmaking so I thought you could pick your own pattern and make them up yourself. Maybe we could do something together over the Easter holidays?”

“It’s perfect!” exclaimed Athene.

Even though she had opened her presents from everyone there, there still seemed to be several presents left for her.

Lucy was getting quite good at art and had sent her a sketch of Athene for Christmas. It was pencil sketch of Athene trying to show some of the first years how to do a line out properly.

Lizzie had sent her a desk calendar.

Charlie and Harry had sent her a book on the different British flowers.

There was still a huge box left to be unwrapped though.

“What the devil could be in there?” asked Captain Llewelyn as Major Richards prized the lid of the packing case.

It turns out that inside the huge box, were several small presents from all the Pennington’s.

Mrs Brown had sent her some crochet and dress patterns that she thought Athene might like. Julie had sent her a tube of lipstick, which Captain Llewelyn helped Athene hide quickly before her Granny could see it and confiscate it. Mark had sent her a record, with some traditional Welsh songs on it.

Anthony had sent Athene the Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology, which was a paperback book, that had all the characters and creatures from Classical Mythology and their definitions. Mark had probably thought it looked deadly boring, but Athene thought it could actually be quite useful.

There was a light package wrapped in tissue paper, with a card attached.

“For when you don’t want to wear a skirt, Simon and Nick.”

Athene looked confused, but then she opened the parcel and found a pair of dark blue denim jeans!

“Heavens preserve us!” exclaimed Mrs Richards as she saw the jeans, “you’re a young lady! Young ladies don’t wear trousers!”

“Thank God she didn’t see the lipstick,” muttered Captain Llewelyn only loud enough for Athene to hear.

There was still one more present left at the bottom. It also had a small card attached.

“Anthony said you didn’t have any photos of him, because he’s always behind the camera. Well I found you one! Mr. P.”

She unwrapped the parcel and found a black and white photograph that had been taken last Summer in a glass frame. Anthony and Athene were both poking their heads out curiously from behind a tent flap, and Mr Pennington had managed to get a photograph.

“Oh so that’s the dashing young Anthony,” said Captain Llewelyn with interest.

“I’ll give it you Athy, you’ve got good taste, he’s a right looker!”

“He’s not my boyfriend!” she laughed.

“Hmm,” he muttered smirking slightly.


	20. Chapter 20

Athene looked out the window and saw that it was a miserable rainy day. There wasn’t a jot of blue in the sky, and it was chucking it down. 

But nothing was going to bring her down today!

It was the first day of the Easter holidays, and she was going home to Wales for three weeks. The Easter holidays were always somehow much more exciting than the Christmas, no presents, but the weather was just so much better, so Athene could read outside under a tree rather than having to huddle up next to a radiator inside.

It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy school, but she missed her family. Her Grandparents who she loved more than anything in the world. 

Her Granny might be a bit old fashioned and strict, but her Granny loved her so much, and just didn’t want Athene to get hurt. They were going to sew together that beautiful material this holiday and Athene was going to have her first ever grown up outfit.

And Grandpa. He had always encouraged her to do whatever she wanted to and to follow her dreams. Instead of keeping her off the rugby pitch like some men, he had encouraged her to join in.

It was more than that though. She had always taught her to be brought of her heritage and of who she was. Whenever she left Wales, she felt like she was leaving a part of herself behind.

She packed her suitcase quickly and pulled on her raincoat over the top, the parents weren’t going to start arriving for another half an hour or so, but she was just so excited to see her family!

Usually they all waited on the driveway, but it was raining so hard, that there were dozens of students waiting in the entrance way to the boarding house trying to keep dry.

Athene sat down on her suitcase and waited for them to arrive.

They didn’t come at ten o’clock. It was a long way from Wales, they’d be here soon.

At eleven o’clock, Mr Pennington picked up the boys and Julie, but the Richards still didn’t come.

At twelve o’clock, her grandparents still weren’t there, but there was still loads of students waiting to be collected, there was nothing to worry about, Athene thought.

By the time it reached two o’clock and there was still no arrival, she wasn’t so sure.

Most of the other students had been picked up, even the teachers had gone home. Mr Mitchell was staying at the school over the holiday to keep an eye on the building.

“Do you want me to ring the base?” asked Mr Mitchell as Athene looked out the window to the torrential rain.

Athene shrugged maybe something had gone wrong, one of them could be ill, or they might have thought they weren’t picking her up until next week.

Mr Mitchell came back looking deeply confused.

“Apparently, they left six hours ago,” said Mr Mitchell, “they’ll be here soon enough.”

Athene smiled slightly and looked out the window again.

But half an hour later, the phone rang and Mr Mitchell went to go answer it.

“Athene,” he said coming back out of the office, “its for you.”

Athene looked up at Mr Mitchell, for some reason his usual jolliness had disappeared to be replaced by a look of pity.

Athene nodded and went to go answer the telephone deeply confused.

“Hello?”

“Hello Athene?” said a familiar voice.

“Uncle Davy!” she exclaimed.

“How are you?” she asked excitedly.

“I’m fine sweetheart,” he sighed.

“Is there something wrong?” she asked nervously.

“There’s been an accident.”

“What?” she stammered hoping she’d been mishearing things.

“An accident. Your Grandparents were driving up to get you, but the weather’s pretty bad down here its chucking it down.”

“I know,” she nodded, “its raining here too.”

“They are coming, aren’t they?”

There was an awkwardly long pause, and Athene worried that the connection had dropped.

“Uncle Davy, you still there?”

“Um yeah,” he muttered, “anyway there was an accident. They were driving down some pretty bad country roads, you know what the roads are like and in this weather, well you can imagine.”

“What happened?” she stammered.

“The road had flooded, and they turned the corner and drove straight into it.”

Athene was waiting breathlessly for Captain Llewelyn to finish.

“The car crashed into a tree.”

“Are they alright?” she asked desperately, “are they in the hospital.”

“They’re dead Athy.”

“Died almost instantly. The police found the car a few hours ago, and rang the base, because that’s where the car is registered about an hour ago. That was about five minutes after I talked to your Mr Mitchell.”

It was Athene’s turn to be speechless, the only family she had left in the whole wide world had gone. They were dead. It just seemed so final. They were dead. She had no family left.

“Athy,” he called, “Athy!”

“Hmm,” she muttered.

“They’re arranging for someone from the Aldershot base to pick you up, they’ll be there soon. I’ll see you in a couple of hours ok?”

“Hmm,” she muttered again.

“It’s going to ok Athy, I promise,” said Captain Llewelyn firmly, “we’ll sort this.”

“Hmm.”

“Athene,” said Mr Mitchell poking his head around the door, “the car’s here.”

She put the phone back and went into the hallway. 

There was a young private in uniform standing there by her suitcase.

He gave her a brief salute as a form of greeting

“Athene Richards?” 

“Yes sir,” she muttered picking up her suitcase and getting into the jeep outside.

No other words were exchanged between the two in the whole journey. 

Athene spent the six hours staring out the window at the pouring rain as they drove through the English and Welsh countryside.

By the time that they reached the base, it was nearly nine o’clock at night.

Captain Llewelyn was waiting for her at the gate and helped Athene down from the car with her suitcase.

The private gave Captain Llewelyn a brief salute before turning the jeep back around.

The rain had finally left off as evening had hit.

Captain Llewelyn put his hands-on Athene’s shoulders, and looked at her firmly, he seemed to be close to crying.

“Come on Cariad,” he sighed, “let’s get you inside.”

He took the suitcase, and they both walked back to the house.

Only once they were both back in the house did Athene finally burst into tears.

“Shh, it’s ok sweetheart,” he muttered as they both sat down on the sofa.

He put his arm around her and rocked her soothingly.

“I just can’t believe they’re gone,” she sobbed having finally broken down, “I’m all alone!”

“You are far from it little one,” he said stroking her hair gently, “you’ve got me, and the Pennington’s.”

“Hmm,” she mumbled.

“But I don’t want you to worry about any of that for now, just get some sleep.”

Athene thought about protesting, but the next thing she knew, she had fallen asleep leaning into her Uncle.


	21. Chapter 21

Athene felt slightly weak. Her head was all stuffed up and she felt so tired. She could also hear a slight ringing.

She opened her eyes and realised that she had been asleep on the sofa, clearly Uncle Davy had tucked her in under blankets on the sitting room sofa when she had fell asleep last night. 

She was still wearing her uniform, and her coat hat and shoes were by her suitcase on the floor.

Captain Llewelyn had fallen asleep still sat up properly in the armchair

There was that there bloody ringing again, maybe she wasn’t imagining it?

Then she realised it wasn’t her head that was ringing, but the telephone!

She walked through to the hallway where the phone was kept.

“Hello?” asked Athene curiously.

“Athene?” asked a voice down the phone.

“Yes,” she nodded, “who is this?”

“Tony! Nick! Simon!” she heard from the other end of the line, “I’ve got her!”

“Athene!” gasped Anthony breathlessly, he had clearly just been running.

“Are you alright?” 

“Yes I’m fine.”

“Honestly?” asked Nick taking the phone.

“Yeah I’m fine, Uncle Davy’s here.”

“Mr Mitchell rang us last night and told us everything,” said Anthony.

“But Dad told us not to ring you last night, he said you’d be tired,” said Mark.

“He also told you to not ring until after ten, so you didn’t wake her up,” added Simon.

“It’s fine,” laughed Athene laughing at them fighting over the phone.

“We’re coming to see you in a few days,” said Anthony, “Dad’s bringing us down for the funeral.”

“Thanks,” muttered Athene.

“Let the girl go lads,” said Simon.

“The poor kid’s probably knackered,” added Nick.

“See you in a few days Athene!” called Anthony.

“Bye Athens!” called Mark.

“Bye,” she muttered as they put the phone down.

She found herself feeling slightly empty, she didn’t know if it was because she missed her grandparents, or that she hadn’t eaten in twenty-four hours.

“There you are,” said Captain Llewelyn coming out into the corridor, “I was wondering where you’d got to.”

“Mark and Anthony called,” said Athene, “they’re coming to the funeral.”

“Ah the funeral,” he muttered patting her on the back.

“Well don’t worry about that, that’s all being sorted.”

Athene nodded slightly.

“You hungry Cariad?”

She nodded again.

Captain Llewelyn was a fairly good cook, so he managed to knock up some scrambled eggs and toast.

“Mr Lewis is coming around this morning for a meeting,” he told her as they ate breakfast.

“Who’s Mr Lewis?” she asked.

“Your families lawyer, he needs to go through the will,” he explained.

“Why is he coming around so soon!” she stammered.

“Usually this takes a few days doesn’t it?”

“Well, as you’re a minor and an orphan, they need to sort out your guardian.”

“Aren’t you going to look after me?” she asked.

It hadn’t occurred to her up until this point, but then she remembered that her Uncle Davy was a bachelor and probably didn’t want a twelve-year-old girl holding him back.

“Sweetheart I’d love to,” he assured her, “but it would be a bit boring for you wouldn’t it?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well I’m not exactly the most exciting person to live with, and actually someone else has already offered to take you.”

“What?” she stammered, surprised at this fresh news, and that someone actually wanted to take her.

“Who?”

“You’ll find out soon enough,” he chuckled, as he cleared the breakfast things.

“Why don’t you go get changed, you’re still in your uniform.”

“Oh yeah,” said Athene somewhat foolishly.

She headed upstairs to her room, and her bedroom door was open.

There was a fresh vase of flowers on her bedside table, and the material that Granny had bought her for Christmas was on the desk.

Her bed was freshly made with one of her quilts folded on top, and there was a note on top of her pillow.

“Dear Athene, welcome home, love always Granny and Grandpa.”

She forgot all about getting changed and threw herself on top of the bed, and curled up in a ball before bursting into tears again.

“Athy,” said Captain Llewelyn gently after a while, “Mr Lewis will be here soon.”

Athene looked over to him as he came and sat down on the bed.

“Things are going to get better,” he said.

“Hmm,” she muttered.

“Now come on, get some fresh clothes on and you’ll feel ten times better I promise.”

Athene nodded slightly and she pulled herself up off the bed.

She got a clean jumper and skirt out of her dresser, before going through to the bathroom.

She washed her face quickly and redid her plaits and brushed her teeth before heading back downstairs.

“There you see,” said Captain Llewelyn giving her a hug, “much better already.”

Athene smiled slightly, as there was a knock on the door.

“That’ll be the lawyer,” he muttered going to go and get the door.

Athene followed him and peeked out from the sitting room whilst he answered the door.

But it wasn’t the lawyer, it was a middle-aged woman with a basket and a child clinging onto her skirt.

“Hello,” she beamed, “is this the Richard’s house?”

“Um yes, Athene Richards lives here,” he nodded.

“We heard about what happened yesterday, poor thing left all alone in the world.”

“She’s not left all alone,” he corrected her.

“No of course not,” she said slightly flustered, “well um we heard about what happened with her grandparents and we all got together and made her some bits.”

She indicated the wicker basket.

“It’s nothing much, just a shepherd’s pie, a loaf of bread, some milk, some biscuits, a few apples. We only wish it was more! We’re also going to pull together for the funeral tea in a few days.”

“Thank you,” said Captain Llewelyn earnestly as he took the basket from her.

“Thank you!” called Athene from where she had been poking her head out the sitting room doorway.

“We all send our sympathies,” she said smiling gently at Athene, “Major Richards was a fine man, and Mrs Richards was the finest sewer I’ve ever known.”

“I know,” beamed Athene, “she taught me everything I know.”

Athene took the basket of food through to the kitchen and started to put it all away, and there was another knock on the door.

This time it really was Mr Lewis.

“Athy!” called Captain Llewelyn from the sitting room, “can you come in here please!”

“Coming!” she called as she put the last of the things away.

When she came through to the sitting room, there was a man sat in one of the armchairs trying to sort out several pieces of paperwork.

He seemed a sensible sort of man in a pinstriped suit. He looked the kind of man who would take no nonsense.

“Hello,” said Mr Lewis smiling kindly at her, “you must be Athene.”

“Yes of course you are, you look just like your mother.”

“You knew my Mum,” stammered Athene as she sat down on the sofa next to her uncle.

“Yes of course, I have been the lawyer for all the Richards. She was rather a bit older, and it was quite a while back, but I knew her yes.”

“Oh,” muttered Athene.

“Your parents were good people, as were your grandparents. It’s tragic that you have lost them all quite so young.”

“Hmm,” muttered Athene.

“Right, I’m sure a young girl like you has much more important things to do then listen to me all day, to business!”

He riffled through his paperwork again.

“First off the financial situation.”

Athene bit her lip slightly, school fees must cost a lot, and she was all alone in the world, how was she supposed to support herself?

“Can I afford the school fees?” she asked nervously.

“What?” he asked.

“Well yes of course you can. In fact, actually, as you are a forces orphan, the forces will pay for your education. Boarding school and anything further you would like.”

“Anything further?” she asked confused.

Up until now, she had always thought that after sixth form and her A Levels her education would be over.

“Oh yes, University, or anything else.”

“University,” she breathed hardly believing it.

“Have we got a bit of a scholar on our hands?” asked Mr Lewis smiling at Captain Llewelyn.

“Just a bit yes,” chuckled Captain Llewelyn.

“Well you’re not going to have to worry about that for quite a few years yet old girl.”

“As I was saying, the financials,” continued Mr Lewis.

“Both your father and grandfather were very successful in their careers in the army, but the Richards in general were a very frugal family.”

“Rather than spend their money, they preferred to save it for a rainy day, in the bank.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“I’m trying to say, that you are more than financially stable.”

He handed Athene a piece of paper, which read that the Richard’s Barclays savings account, had slightly under £20,000 in it.

“Bloody hell!” muttered Captain Llewelyn as he looked at the piece of paper.

“You’re not allowed to touch it until you’re eighteen,” Mr Lewis explained, “but it should gain some interest by then.”

“You could buy a house with that money!” stammered Captain Llewelyn.

“You could actually buy quite a few,” chuckled Mr Lewis.

Athene was slightly stunned that her family were quite so well off.

“Now then, about your guardianship, and where you’re going to live.”

Athene looked up.

“The house unfortunately has to be given back; it will be needed for a new family.”

Athene nodded; she had known that would be coming up. She wouldn’t like having to leave the house behind but never mind.

“Captain David Llewelyn has been named your legal guardian, being both your parents and your grandparents friend.”

Uncle Davy put his arm around Athene and gave her a slight hug.

“But last night, another person rang me, saying they would be more than willing to have you live with them.”

Athene looked more than slightly confused.

“A Mr Brian Pennington.”

“Mr Pennington!” stammered Athene.

“Now you can see why I thought you might not want to stay with me, when you can flounce around in that big house in Sussex and have a good time with your mates.”

“Which ever one I choose; you’ll still be my guardian?” she asked.

“Yes Cariad,” he chuckled.

“I’ve got to tell you something first though,” muttered Uncle Davy.

“What?”

“I was offered a desk job at the Aldershot base a month back, and I already accepted.”

“Aldershot!” she exclaimed, “but then we’d be leaving Wales!”

“Yes,” he admitted, “but it would be a lot closer to your school if anything went wrong, and it’s only an hour away from the Pennington’s not seven.”

Athene bit her lip.

“When would we be moving?” she asked.

“Not for another month. But whichever house you choose to live at, you’ll be leaving Wales.”

Athene bit her lip slightly.

“I think I’d rather live with you, less chaotic than living at the Pennington’s full time, besides if it’s only an hour away, I can visit all the time.”

“That’s my girl,” he beamed giving her a huge hug


	22. Chapter 22

A few days later between Athene and Captain Llewelyn they had managed to pack up the Richards’ house.

Everything that Athene had owned since she was a tiny little girl, had been carefully packed into boxes, some of which were being put into storage until Uncle Davy moved to a new house, but the rest of the boxes were going to the Pennington’s tonight. She was going to have half her things at each house, so that she could stay at either one.

This morning was the funeral, and Athene was pulling on her old black velvet dress she had worn a year and a half ago at her Dad’s funeral. She must have grown at least a little bit, because it was slightly shorter than it had been last time.

As she tied the ribbons on the end of her neat plaits, she heard a car pull up outside the house.

She hung her head out the window, and saw a familiar car, with five people with dark suits sitting inside.

She came rushing down the stairs nearly crashing into Uncle Davy.

“Be careful,” he chuckled as Athene ran into him, “or you’ll knock me over and I’ll never get back up.”

“Sorry,” she muttered quickly as she headed out of the house.

“Anthony!” she exclaimed giving him a huge hug.

“Steady on Athene,” he chuckled, “I only saw you five days ago!”

“It’s been a very long five days,” she sighed.

Between her grandparents dying, packing up the house, and having to put up with a seeming endless stream of mourners, it felt like it had been a year since she had seen Anthony and the others.

“Thank you all for coming,” she said earnestly as she looked around at the Pennington’s.

“It’s nearly over now,” said Mr Pennington giving her a hug.

“Hmm,” she muttered.

The church was packed. The church wasn’t small, but there seemed to be several hundred mourners there. More than half of them were in dress uniform with their medals shining like a bright new penny.

Athene felt terrified that all those people were going to want to talk to her after the service and was dreading having to talk to so many people.

Major and Mrs Richards were buried with full military honours. This meant a twelve-gun salute over the graves.

Athene had to struggle to keep herself from shoving her fingers in her ears during the gun fire. But as she had been to her Father’s funeral, she had known to expect it.

After the funeral, came the funeral tea. As Athene had feared, her Grandfather’s old friends kept on coming up to talk to her during the wake. And her Granny’s friends kept on coming over and telling her how much she looked like her mother and pinching her cheeks.

But Anthony stuck by her the whole time. He kept a firm grip on her hand, and whenever she got nervous, she would just squeeze his hand.

Fortunately, after what felt like days, the wake ended in the early evening.

Athene got changed into a more comfortable jumper and skirt as they loaded her bags into the boot of the car.

“Right then you,” said Captain Llewelyn as they stood by the packed car.

“I’ll see you in July, might be able to pop in for Sports Day if I can get the day off.”

Athene nodded slightly as she gave her Uncle a huge hug before getting in the car next to Anthony.

She hadn’t realised quite how tired she had been after the funeral until they started driving.

She found herself leaning on Anthony’s shoulder and dropped off to sleep within minutes.

The next thing she knew, it was pitch black and she could hear muttering around her.

“It’s meant to be true loves kiss that wakes up the sleeping princess, right?” asked Simon.

“We’re not in love,” said Anthony firmly.

“Tell that to the princess sleeping on your shoulder,” smirked Mark.

“What’s going on?” she mumbled half asleep.

“We’re home,” said Mr Pennington.

Home that sounded like such a good word.

Mrs Brown had run Athene a nice warm bath in her own bathroom, and she then pulled on a clean pair of flannel pyjamas.

When she got back to her room after the bath, she found Anthony sitting on her bed reading, and Mark was strumming his guitar.

“We can go if you want to sleep,” said Anthony.

“No,” she mumbled, “I haven’t been sleeping well, I’d rather stay up and chat.”

“Tell you what,” suggested Anthony beaming, “why don’t you get into bed and I’ll read to you?”

Nothing had ever sounded better.

Anthony opened his copy of The Odyssey to the first page.

“If you two are going to read a boring book like that I’m off,” he grumbled taking his guitar with him as he hopped off the bed.

Athene snuggled under the bedsheets and Anthony lay down on top of the sheets at the end of the bed and started to read to her.

He hadn’t gotten past the first few pages though when Athene fell asleep.

Anthony smiled as he closed the book.

“Goodnight Sleeping Beauty,” he muttered kissing her on the forehead as he readjusted her pillows.

“Welcome home!” he whispered as he turned off the light and closed her door.


	23. Chapter 23

The last term of the year went by in a flurry as usual. There was end of year exams to be sat, swimming races to be run, entertainments to be prepared.

But finally, in the last week of term came the day that Harry and Charlie had been looking forward to all year. Sports Day!

Everyone had to take part, Anthony gave his best shot at the long jump, but came in last place.

As there weren’t enough girls to compete against, Charlie competed against the boys. 

Harry and Charlie might have been going out for nearly a whole year, but on Sports Day their feelings for each other got thrown out the window.

Harry won the 1500 meters, but only by a few seconds. But then Charlie beat him in the 200 metres freestyle swimming.

It all came down to the assault course. They had both been practising all year, in the rain and the cold, climbing through the mud in cadet practise. But it all came down to today.

Charlie nodded to Harry as they waited at the starting line. There was about fifteen people taking part in the junior’s assault course, but most people were only watching two people, Harry and Charlie.

The piston started and they both started at a run, climbing the wall, running through the tires, walking the rope.

It was a tight finish, but Charlie finished ten seconds ahead of Harry.

“Well done Charlie!” chuckled Harry patting her on the back as they finished.

They were both splattered as they were handed out their medals, but for some reason they just didn’t seem to care.

“Knew you could do it Charlie!” beamed Athene as they came running over.

“I’d hug you,” said Julie, “but I don’t want to get muddy.”

Charlie and Harry both looked at each other ominously before smiling.

They both scraped the worst of the mud of off their faces and Julie’s face went white.

“You wouldn’t dare,” she stammered.

“Wouldn’t we?” said Harry smirking.

Julie legged it and Harry and Charlie ran after her laughing preparing to throw mud at her face.

“She kind of brought that on herself didn’t she,” chuckled Anthony.

Anthony was wearing his cricket whites which somehow always seemed to stay pristine white. This was a good thing because the white made a good contrast to his dark hair and eyes. But although he looked very good in his cricket whites, he wasn’t actually very good at cricket which is why they stayed quite so white whereas Harry’s cricket whites were splattered with patches of grass and mud.

A few days after that was the last day of term and everyone was getting picked up by their parents.

“It’s strange isn’t it,” muttered Athene as they stood on the driveway with their luggage as they waited for their families to pick them up.

“What’s strange?” asked Anthony, who was still thinking about how much of a prat he had looked earlier when he had gone to collect the Junior Latin prize and had tripped in front of the whole school.

“Well we’ve been here two years, but we’ve only got five years left,” she explained, “Simon’s not even coming back next year.”

“Hmm,” he muttered, “I suppose so.”

At this point though Captain Llewelyn pulled up with the car.

“I’ll see you in August!” beamed Athene giving Anthony a quick hug before helping load the luggage in the car.

Athene noticed that Anthony waved somewhat dazedly as the car pulled away from the drive, she supposed he was still distracted about nearly tripping earlier.

“You had a good term kiddo?” asked Uncle Davy as they drove to Aldershot.

“Yeah,” she nodded, “I got the Junior prize for English Literature and French.”

“I know Cariad,” he chuckled, “I was there!”

“Anthony and I actually tied for Latin in the end of year exam, but I’d already won some other prizes, so I let Anthony have it.”

“That was very nice of you,” he nodded.

“You excited for the holidays?”

“I suppose so,” she muttered.

She was worried that she wasn’t going to have any friends at the new base. She had had a few friends at the Pembrokeshire base, but she was never the most sociable of people. She would probably just spend the days reading on her own in her room whilst Uncle Davy was at work.

When they got to the new base, they pulled up in front of a small cottage. It was only a small house, as there was only the two of them, but Athene would get her own room and would be left alone.

She helped Uncle Davy pull her suitcases up to her new room, which was already full of boxes of possessions, from the old house. She noticed that under the towers of books there was her desk from her Grandparents house.

She took a deep sigh, before getting changed into her jeans and a rugby jersey so she could be more comfortable.

Then she tackled the unpacking. She couldn’t stand an untidy and unorganised room. She started off by unpacking her school things before clearing the desk, so she could set up books and diary properly. 

As she unfolded one of her quilts from her trunk and lay the quilt on top of her bed, she placed several black and white photographs of her family on the bedside table. She also found herself placing the photograph of Anthony and her with the family photos.

When she had unpacked, she tackled the boxes.

Most of the stuff such as her children’s books and her primary school uniform, she hadn’t used in years. She packed all those carefully back in their boxes and left them to put in the spare room, which her and Uncle Davy were going to use for storage.

As she reached the last of her boxes, she found the fabric that her Granny had bought her for Christmas. It seemed a waste for it to be unused, they were such beautiful fabrics! She’d have to think of something to use them for.


	24. Chapter 24

Anthony was sat in the linen cupboard and was starting to write a letter to Athene, he had just written the date, July 4th 1954, when there was a huge shout from downstairs.

“Yes!” screamed a voice.

“Tony! Simon! Nick!” yelled Mark, “get down here!”

“What the hell?” muttered Anthony as he climbed down from his shelf bringing his letter and pen downstairs with him.

He ran into Nick and Simon who were running down the stairs and followed them down to the sitting room.

Mark was watching the television and was watching the news of all things.

Here was Anthony, thinking that Mark was going to be watching one of his film stars or one of his music shows or something, but no, Mark was yelling in excitement over the news.

“What in the world is going on here?” asked Mrs Brown coming into the sitting room with her hands on her hips, coming to see what all the ruckus was.

Mark just pointed towards the television were the broadcaster was reading off a piece of paper.

A man in a neat suit, was reading in an upper middle-class accent, typical of the BBC.

“It was announced this afternoon in a statement from the prime minister, that after nearly fifteen years of rationing, rationing is finally over. For the last few years, the government have been cutting back on the number of items being rationed.”

“As recently as last year, sugar and confectionary products were no longer rationed. As of today, I am pleased to announce, that meat and all over food products are no longer to be rationed.”

The news programming ended, and the music hour that mark had been waiting for started.

“It can’t be,” muttered Mrs Brown still staring at the television and shaking her head in disbelief.

Anthony’s mouth was hanging open, there had been rationing on longer than he had been alive! Rationing started a few months before Mark and Anthony had been born!

“I’ve got to write to Athene about this!” exclaimed Anthony going back up to the linen cupboard.

He could still hear Mark and Nick singing in celebration as he headed back upstairs.

4th July 1954

Dear Athene,

It’s happened! It’s all over! Rationing is over!

I was just about to start writing a letter to you when I heard yelling from downstairs. It turns out that it was Mark who had been watching the news of all things!

As of today, meat and all other food is off the ration!

I think the first thing I want is a nice juicy hamburger, I’ve heard about them from Harry, but I’ve never had one. Apparently, they’re really popular in America.

Simon’s been acting really weird all week. Goodness knows why, he got his A Level results back and did better than he had expected. He’s been really quiet, and you know what Simon’s like! I’m worried he’s up to something.

It’s more than that though, he’s hardly seen Cels all Summer. We’ve only been home a week, but he saw her on the first day, and now hasn’t seen her since. Celia has been on holiday with her family for the last week but she’s coming back today and Simon’s going around for tea.

I just hope he can come back this evening more like his usual self.

Sorry if this is a bit of a short one Athene, just had to tell you about the rationing! I’ll write with an update on Simon as soon as I get one.

Miss you loads, Anthony Mark Pennington.

P.S. Fred and Ginger say hi!

Anthony wrote the address carefully and headed downstairs so he could go post his letter.

“Hi Simon,” he said cheerfully as he bumped into Simon on his way out the door.

“Oh hey Tony,” he muttered.

Simon seemed to be very distracted and clearly had his mind elsewhere. This was strange, because if any of the Pennington boys were usually acting distracted or had his mind wandering it was Anthony, not Simon.

“You going to the Bell’s for tea then?” he asked as they walked down to the village together.

“Yeah,” he sighed deeply, his hands in his jacket pocket.

“There something wrong Simon?”

“I’ll tell you later,” said Simon smiling slightly and seeming to return to his usual self.

“Now get on with you,” he chuckled ruffling his brother’s hair as they reached the Bell’s house in the village.

“Good luck!” Anthony called as he walked away, “with whatever it is!”

Anthony headed to the post office and posted his letter to Athene, before heading back to the house.

Anthony was lying on top of his bed reading a book again. He was reading his copy The Hobbit again. Something about Tolkien’s world drew him in and made him want to read the book over and over again.

“I’m home!” called a voice up the stairs.

“Dad!” exclaimed Anthony running down the stairs.

He came rushing down the stairs, bringing his book with him.

“Hey Tony,” he chuckled giving his son a quick hug.

“Did you hear about the rationing?” asked Anthony looking up at him.

“Hmmm,” he nodded.

“Let’s put it this way, getting the roast for Sunday’s is going to become a lot less difficult.”

“You’re telling me!” muttered Mrs Brown as they came through to the kitchen.

Just before dinner, as Mrs Brown was about to start serving the beef casserole and boiled potatoes, Simon came into the kitchen a huge grin plastered over his face.

He looked younger than he had done all week, and his eyes were lit up like stars.

“What’s got you grinning like a Cheshire Cat?” asked Mark smirking as he ate his dinner.

“What are you talking about?” asked Simon innocently but still smiling like mad.

“Oh, come on Simon,” said Nick exasperated.

“You’ve been walking around like a wet week for the last week, but now you go to tea at the Bell’s just one time, like you have fifty times before and you seem to be walking on air.”

Simon blushed slightly; he didn’t know he had been that obvious about how much he had missed Celia.

Mr Pennington was smiling but hadn’t said anything. He knew exactly what was going on.

“Well um, I asked Celia to marry me.”

“You what!” stammered Nick.

“What did she say?” asked Mark excitedly.

“She said yes,” he beamed.

“Congratulations Simon,” said Anthony.

“See I told you had nothing to worry about son,” said Mr Pennington shaking his head.

“Right!” called Mr Pennington after dinner, “family meeting!”

“Oh god we’re not starting wedding planning already,” muttered Nick as they all headed through to the sitting room.

“Not exactly no.”

Mr Pennington sat down in his armchair, and Nick and Simon shared one of the sofas.

Mark attended the meeting but was sitting on the floor in a position that was half splits, he was clearly trying to stretch his legs again.

Anthony was trying to read his book again.

“You know the rules Tony,” said Mr Pennington taking The Hobbit from Anthony.

“If Mark can do his dance stretches, why can’t I read?” asked Anthony.

“Because I want you to pay attention,” he said simply.

“That means you too Mark!”

Mark grumbled slightly as he stopped stretching his legs and sat down properly next to Simon on the sofa.

“Right we need to talk about the future,” said Mr Pennington.

“Oh god you’re not getting married too are you Dad?” muttered Nick.

“You’re marrying Mrs Brown, aren’t you?” asked Mark grinning madly.

Mrs Brown had to be seventy if she was a day, and whilst her and Mr Pennington had a very good relationship, there had never been anything whatsoever romantic.

“Ha ha very funny,” chuckled Mr Pennington.

“No what we actually need to talk about in the business.”

“I know that you want to join the business at the end of the Summer Simon, and I think that you also want to join in a year Nick.”

“I’ve been thinking it through about where you would be best suited in the publishing business. You Simon have always been very good at talking to people, always been a people person and had good rapport.”

Simon shrugged slightly, he had always been an easy person to get along with it, but what did that have to do with anything?

“I think you’d be a good front man for the company, talking to new clients, organising deals with the bookshops, dealing with the press.”

“Sounds cool,” beamed Simon.

“But it’s more than that, you and Celia would be able to live up in London. The job would be quite hands on but very exciting.”

“London!” exclaimed Simon his eyes lighting up again.

“I’ve already got a flat sorted out for you,” he beamed.

“As for you Nick, if you still want to join Pennington’s publishers.”

“Of course, I want to join Dad,” said Nick.

“Well then, you and Simon have very different strengths. You’re more comfortable behind a desk than your older brother.”

“That’s the truth,” chuckled Simon patting Nick on the back.

“You’ve got an eye for detail. I think you’d make a good editor, going through prospective manuscripts, and helping make the changes before they’re published.”

“Sounds great Dad!” beamed Nick.

“Why are we here though?” asked Mark in a tone of utter boredom.

“Because I’ve got a funny feeling that you don’t want to go into publishing, the same for you Anthony.”

“What?” asked Anthony whipping his head around.

He had been thinking about the book he was reading, and his attention had been wandering again.

Mr Pennington merely shook his head and smiled at his two youngest sons.

“I have been very lucky, I run a very successful business, and the good lord has provided with not just one but four sons, and I am equally proud of all of you.”

“Two of my sons have expressed an interest in joining me in the business, but another two seem to be destined for greater things.”

“I know you Mark want to be a film star, and I have no problem with that. You don’t have to join the company if you don’t want to.”

“That just leaves you Tony,” he said beaming at his son.

“What are you talking about?” asked Anthony confused.

He had always assumed that having finished his A Levels, he was going to join the company like Nick and Simon.

“Oh, I know that you like books, there’s no doubt about that. But editing other people’s manuscripts would be a pure waste of potential.”

“I have met a lot of young writers over the last thirty years, and you’ve got the mind for it!”

“But it’s more than that, I think that when the time comes you should go to university.”

“University!” breathed Anthony hardly believing his ear’s.

Mr Pennington nodded again.

“As I said, you’ve got a great mind, and I don’t want you to waste it.”

Anthony got off the floor from where he had been leaning against Nick’s leg.

He gave his father the biggest hug he ever had.

“Steady on Tony,” he chuckled, “nothing’s going to happen for five years yet!”

“I know Dad,” said Anthony letting go of his Dad.

“You are the best Dad in the world!” he beamed.

“I’ll second that motion!” chuckled Simon, whilst Nick and Mark nodded in agreement.


	25. Chapter 25

Captain Llewelyn pulled the car into the drive of The Yews and looked up at the house.

“And I thought you were exaggerating about how big the house was,” he exclaimed as he parked the car and looked up at the huge house.

“Since when have I ever been prone to exaggeration,” she giggled as she got out the car.

“Athene!” screamed Mark out the attic window.

He had clearly been up there keeping a watch for her, because he and Julie were hanging out the window waving frantically.

“Hi Mark! Hi Julie!” she called.

“Tony’s on his way down!” he called again.

“Athene!” yelled Anthony as he came running out of the house.

“I’ve missed you!” he exclaimed giving her a hug.

“I’ve missed you too,” she laughed.

“Next time maybe spend the whole Summer together if you’ve missed each other so much,” muttered Captain Llewelyn as he tried to get the trunk out of the car.

“Let me get that,” chuckled Anthony as he got the trunk out of the car.

“Don’t be silly Uncle Davy!” she beamed giving him an even bigger hug, “I love being with you too!”

“But I can’t discuss Latin declensions and French verbs with you, hmmm?”

“That’s about the gist of it,” chuckled Anthony.

“Do you want to see my room?” asked Athene excitedly.

“As long as you don’t mind waiting for this bloody leg of yours to catch you up on the stairs!”

Athene’s face split into a huge grin and practically skipped up the stairs chatting away to Anthony and Uncle Davy on their way up the stairs.

Simon and Nick were going to bring up the luggage later and it had been left in the hallway downstairs.

“It’s just up here,” she said pointing up the attic stairs.

“Not another ruddy staircase,” muttered Uncle Davy as he started to limp his way up the stairs to the attic.

“It’s the last one,” Athene giggled, “I promise!”

Athene and Anthony waited patiently at the top of the stairs for Captain Llewelyn.

“This is my bathroom,” she said pointing to the bathroom as they passed.

“You’ve got your own bathroom,” he mumbled, “why am I surprised.”

“And then this is my room,” she finished.

Uncle Davy flopped down on top of the bed as they arrived in the room.

“I am never climbing that many stairs again,” he mumbled.

“Although this room is beautiful Athene,” he chuckled.

“It’s gorgeous isn’t it, even got my own dressing table.”

“And the best bit is,” said Anthony, “its safe away from the rest of the chaos of this crazy household!”

“My leg hurts so much I think I can hear pounding in my head,” said Uncle Davy massaging his old war wound.

“Oh no that’s not in your head,” shrugged Anthony.

“That’s Mark and Julie,” giggled Athene, “they’re practising their tap dancing.”

“You are kidding me, right?” asked Uncle Davy.

“Nope, they practise tap dancing on the bare floorboards in the attic,” chuckled Anthony, “but not before nine o’clock in the morning or after six o’clock at night.”

“Athene,” said Captain Llewelyn as he got up, “you do know your friends are crazy right?”

“Yeah,” she shrugged, “but what’s the fun in life without a bit of craziness?”

“You’ve got a point there kid,” he chuckled, “I’ll see you at Christmas alright?”

“Bye Uncle Davy!” she beamed giving him a huge hug.

Anthony and Nick carried Athene’s bags up to the attic, and Athene started to unpack, whilst Anthony talked to her as he lied down on top of her bed.

“Did you hear that Tolkien is bringing out more books in The Hobbit series?” asked Anthony as he flicked through one of her books.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah according to Dad they brought out the first new book a few weeks back.”

“Well seeing as your Dad’s a publisher I suppose we’ll have to take his word for it,” chuckled Athene as she finished her unpacking.

“There something up Anthony?”

Anthony’s mind had been wandering again.

“Athene, what do you want to do after school?”

“That’s not for five years!” she pointed out.

“I know, but what do you want to do? Do you never think about it?”

“Anthony,” she sighed, “I’ve known you for two years, and in the last two years I’ve lost my Father and my two grandparents.”

“Anything could happen within the next five years, I’d rather live each day as it comes rather than worrying too much about the future.”

Anthony supposed that Athene may have had a point.

Athene flopped down on the bed next to Anthony, with her shoes still on. They were both staring up at the ceiling, Anthony with his dark hair and round glasses, with Athene next to him, her waist length auburn hair loose today and spread out over the top of the bed.

“Have you ever thought about university though?”

“Until a few months back no,” shrugged Athene.

“But now I suppose I could go.”

“What would you want to study?” he asked curiously.

“Why are you asking me all these questions?” she asked incredulously.

“I’m just curious.”

“Well I don’t know,” she muttered, “I like English, but I can read anytime. Maybe French or Latin?”

“Hmm,” he muttered, “I was thinking the same.”

There was quiet in the room for a few minutes as they both looked up at the ceiling and contemplated the future.

But their moment of quiet was soon disturbed by Athene’s door being banged open.

“Wake up sleepy heads!” yelled Mark

“What’s the matter?” asked Anthony still half distracted.

“Apart from you two sleeping in the middle of the day?” laughed Julie.

“We weren’t sleeping,” protested Athene, “we were thinking.”

“What’s the difference,” muttered Mark as he and Julie hopped up onto the bed.

Athene and Anthony sat up, and Athene got a proper look at Julie.

Athene hadn’t seen Julie for a month and a half, but she seemed to have changed remarkably. Julie had always been pretty, but now she seemed to look grown up and sophisticated.

Her long sleek blonde hair had been cut, and now grew to just below her shoulders and was today pulled back into a sleek ponytail.

Julie was wearing pink lipstick, and her nails had a French manicure. 

But it was more than just that! She was wearing a light blue blouse which was tucked a long skirt which was a deeper shade of blue.

But the really remarkable thing was under her skirt, she was wearing an underskirt which was made up of layer upon layer of silk petticoats that made her skirt stick out, and they swished when she walked.

Also, unless Athene was greatly mistaken, Julie was now wearing a bra!

Julie was laughing slightly.

“It’s a bit of a stark contrast isn’t it?” laughed Julie.

Athene hadn’t even realised that she had been staring, but she clearly had. It was almost unbelievable that this was the exact same girl she had said goodbye to only six weeks ago!

“Mum took me up to London last month,” Julie explained.

“A teenage girl needs a more sophisticated wardrobe,” she explained, “school uniforms are just so drab that running around in jerseys and skirts during the hols in just ridiculous!”

Athene looked down at her own jumper and skirt and felt slightly foolish, well at least she was comfortable.

Julie’s skirt which popped out and swished when she walked looked like fun when she wanted to go to a party or dress up, but Athene wouldn’t want to dress like that all the time, it just didn’t look comfortable!

She was quite comfortable in her own ordinary jumper and skirt thank you very much!

She supposed that was the difference between her and Julie.

Mark and Julie went back to practising after a while, and Anthony went to go and read.

When he came upstairs later to find Athene, for a while he thought Athene wasn’t even there. The light was off, and the curtains were shut.

Then he noticed a small lump under a quilt on Athene’s bed.

“Athene?” he muttered, “are you ok?”

There was no answer.

Anthony sat down next to Athene on the bed.

“Athene,” he chuckled slightly moving the quilt so he could see her face.

Athene had tears streaming down her face, which were mingling with the freckles on her cheeks.

“What’s up?”

“Julie,” she mumbled.

“Oh God, she hasn’t been saying horrible things again!”

Anthony had been hoping that Julie had grown out of being horrible and saying harsh things without thinking.

“Oh no,” she muttered, “it’s just do you think I’m pretty?”

“What?” asked Anthony confused.

“Do you think I’m pretty,” she repeated.

“I don’t have pretty blonde hair like Julie, and my face is covered with freckles, and I’m not well….”

“Well what?” asked Anthony confused.

“Developed,” she mumbled.

“Is this because Julie and Charlie have started wearing bras or something!” chuckled Anthony.

“It’s not funny!” sobbed Athene diving back under her quilt where she could no longer see Anthony.

“Sorry Athens, I didn’t mean to offend you like that,” he said gently.

“You know what, anyone can look traditionally pretty like Julie, wear posh expensive clothes, make up and high heels. In fact lots of people do want to look like Julie, blonde hair nice figure, rosy complexion.”

“Is there a point you’re trying to make here Anthony,” she mumbled, “because you’re making me feel worse!”

“Just let me finish,” he chuckled lightly.

“As I said, anyone could like Julie if they wanted to, but not everyone looks like you. Of course, you’re pretty Athene, you’re gorgeous, your freckles look like you’ve been kissed by the sun, your hair, it isn’t rusty like Harry tries telling you, it’s like autumn leaves, its changes colour depending on which light its in.”

Anthony stopped talking abruptly, he had gotten carried away with himself and had been talking far too much.

Athene’s head popped out from under the quilt and looked at him curiously. She seemed to have stopped crying and there was a ghost of a smile on her face.

“And as for the other thing,” he chuckled, “give it time, they’ll grow.”

“I hope you’re right!” she said giggling slightly.

“There’s the cheerful beautiful Athene I know,” he beamed.

“Now come on, let’s go get some dinner.”


	26. Chapter 26

Athene was sat in her room in the attic reading again. She was reading Pride and Prejudice lying on top of her bed with her feet in the air.

She was wearing a green skirt with a matching jumper.

It was very quiet in the attic that afternoon, but Athene liked it that way.

Anthony was doing his piano practise downstairs, and Mark and Julie had gone to the cinema. 

Nick and Simon had gone to London for the day, Mr Pennington was showing them around the business and introducing them to people.

She was just in the middle of laughing at Mr and Mrs Bennet’s bickering when there was a light knock on the door.

“Um come in!” she called as she sat up properly.

“Don’t worry,” laughed Celia, “it’s only me!”

Celia as always was looking very chic and sophisticated. She was wearing a light pink sink blouse which was tucked into a navy skirt. Celia’s skirt didn’t have layers of silk underskirt underneath like Julie’s had.

To be honest, Athene thought that all those extra skirts looked a bit extravagant and ostentatious for everyday wear.

Celia appeared to be carrying a large box with her.

“Oh Celia!” exclaimed Athene jumping off the bed and giving her a hug.

“You know if you get and prettier, you’re going to outshine me at my own wedding!”

“Don’t be silly,” blushed Athene.

“Can I see your ring?” she asked excitedly.

Celia showed her the engagement ring on her right hand, there was a sparkling diamond which was glistening like the sun on a silver band.

“It’s gorgeous,” exclaimed Athene.

“You’re going to look so beautiful on the wedding day.”

“So when are you and Simon getting married then?”

“We were thinking of a Spring wedding,” explained Celia sitting down on the bed next to her.

“So we’re going to get married next Easter holiday, so you can all come.”

Athene beamed, she couldn’t wait for Celia and Simon’s wedding.

Celia and Athene had only met a few times, but she was like an older sister to her.

“Um Athene,” said Celia trying to change the subject.

“Anthony told me that you had some er questions the other day.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Athene flustered.

What had he been telling her?

“Don’t worry,” said Celia laughing slightly, “most girls your age are self-conscious.”

“Some think they’re too tall, too short. Too skinny, too fat, too freckly, too spotty.”

“Even Julie,” she whispered.

Athene looked entirely unconvinced at this idea.

“Why do you think she wears all that makeup and fancy clothes if she wasn’t trying to cover up how self-conscious she is about her natural appearance?”

Athene looked up at Celia and her face lit up.

“To be honest, I’d rather be naturally beautiful like you without trying.”

“I’ve got a few things in here for you,” said Celia going through the box.

She pulled out a paper back book with a red headed girl with plaits on it.

“This book is called Anne of Green Gables, its about a girl with red plaits not unlike you.”

“I used to read but I thought you might like it.”

“Thanks!” beamed Athene as she looked at the blurb.

“But the big thing I need to give you is this.”

She reached in the box and pulled out a silk petticoat underskirt, with just as many layers as Julie’s had.

“That can’t be mine!” stammered Athene.

“If it wasn’t yours why would I be giving it to you?” she asked beaming.

“Besides, everyone’s wearing them for parties in London now clothes are off the ration. And also, you’re going to need this to wear under your bridesmaids dress.”

“Bridesmaid dress!” said Athene hardly believing her ears.

“Well of course! Julie and you are going to be my bridesmaids. Who else was I going to ask?”

Athene’s face lit up like a lightbulb and she gave Celia a huge hug.

“Well go on!” she chuckled, “try it on! I want to see how it looks!”

Athene pulled the petticoats on over the top of her skirt and spun around the room. The petticoats fell to well below her knee. 

They swished and spun out as she twirled around the room.

She laughed as her skirts spun out around her, she felt like a ballerina!

“Thank you Cels!” she gushed giving Celia a hug.

“But I don’t have anything to wear over it.”

“We can fix that,” laughed Celia, “you’re thirteen, you need a nice outfit.”

“Wait a minute!” beamed Athene going over to her wardrobe.

She went over to her chest of drawers and got out the material from last Christmas. It was carefully wrapped up in tissue paper so that it didn’t get ruined.

“Granny gave me these last Christmas,” said Athene, “she was going to help me make a new blouse and skirt over Easter, but….”

“It’s ok,” said Celia giving her a pat on the back.

“These are gorgeous fabrics,” said Celia as she looked at them.

The silk for the blouse was a pale cream, and the material for the skirt was navy blue with tiny little white flowers embroidered.

“Your Granny had good taste,” said Celia as she inspected the skirt material.

“There’s enough material here for a skirt long enough to go over that underskirt.”

“I can help you find a pattern, and we can make them up together if you like.”

“You are the best Cels!” exclaimed Athene.

“I’ll come back tomorrow with some patterns,” said Celia giving Athene one last hug before leaving.

Athene pelted down the stairs after her and rushed into the sitting room where Anthony was practising his piano.

“Anthony!” she beamed running over to him.

“What?” asked Anthony looking up from his piano.

“Thank you thank you thank you!” she exclaimed giving him a hug.

“For what!”

“For being you!” she beamed.

She kissed him on the cheek quickly, and Anthony blushed slightly before going back to his piano practise.

Athene settled down on the piano stool next to him and kept him company whilst he practised.

She closed her eyes and let the wonderful music wash over her.

She was so lucky! She had the most amazing best friend in the world! 

Anthony hadn’t known what to do when Athene hadn’t been feeling great the other day so from a logical conclusion only, he could make he involved Celia!

It could have gone so badly wrong, but Anthony knew that it wouldn’t! 

Celia had talked to her and had known exactly what to say. 

She couldn’t have wished for a better friend in the entire wide world!


	27. Chapter 27

The next day curled up on the floor in the sitting room with Celia and Mrs Brown.

They were flicking though dress patterns in fashion magazines, trying to find a good pattern for Athene’s new skirt and blouse.

Nick was watching with interest, and Anthony was, to surprise no one, reading a book.

“I like that one,” said Nick, pointing at a skirt picture.

“It’s a bit short,” said Celia as she turned the page, “we need to fit the underskirt under it.”

“Oh,” muttered Nick as he went back to watching.

“This one could work,” suggested Mrs Brown as she reached a pattern for a long, pleated skirt.

“Have we got enough material?” asked Athene as she looked at the pattern.

“More than,” beamed Celia.

Then they traced out the pattern for the blouse and the skirt from the pattern, and then the real fun began.

Athene unfolded and ironed out the fabrics, as Mrs Brown got out the dressmaking scissors, and she carefully cut the material.

Nick’s eyes were nearly popping out in fascination, as he watched the fabric eventually become two beautiful items of clothing.

Between the three of them they managed to sew the two items of clothing in one afternoon, and that evening when Mr Pennington came home from work, Athene was spinning around the sitting room in her new outfit.

“You look gorgeous Athene!” said Mr Pennington.

“Spin around again Athens!” called Anthony as he came back downstairs with his camera.

“Want to get it on film!”

Athene was more than happy to spin around the living room as Anthony filmed her.

She had never felt so grown up!

“You know,” muttered Celia as she looked Athene up and down, “they’re not the biggest in the world, but there is something there.”

“What are you talking about Cels darling?” asked Simon who had just come back from London with his Dad.

“Athene,” she beamed, “I think I need to take you bra shopping before the beginning of term.”

Mark couldn’t help himself from spluttering with laughter, he just couldn’t hold it back.

He left the room in hysterics, and headed up to his room, they could still hear him laughing through the ceiling!

Anthony on the other hand looked very awkward and had started reading his book with much more interest.

“Are you serious?” Athene stammered looking at Celia.

“I need a bra!”

Athene was looking at Celia, as though she had never heard anything more wonderful in her whole life!

If she needed a bra, however little, that meant that she was growing! That she was normal!

“I’ll take you to Horsham for one tomorrow, you’re going back to school soon.”

“Thank you thank you thank you!” she exclaimed before running upstairs to put away her new clothes carefully so as not to ruin them.

The next day, Athene got up at five o’clock in the morning, she was excited, today was just so important!

She hopped straight out of bed and got dressed in a pink plaid skirt and a dark pink jumper. She had been reading Anne of Green Gables, and according to Anne Shirley pink didn’t suit redheads, but she just didn’t care. Pink was a pretty colour, and she liked it. Besides her hair wasn’t orange red so it didn’t clash too badly.

She did one plait rather than two and tied a ribbon on the end before rushing down to Mark and Anthony’s room.

“Anthony,” she called softly coming into the room.

“Hmm,” muttered Anthony drowsily.

“Anthony,” she called again sitting down on his bed.

“Athene?” he whispered as he felt around for his glasses.

“What time is it?”

“Quarter past five,” she whispered giggling trying not to wake up Mark.

Athene could tell that Anthony was smiling even in the dark. He picked up his copy of Shakespeare off his bedside table and they both headed through to the linen cupboard.

Anthony pulled himself up onto to the top shelf and then helped Athene up. The shelf could fit them both on quite comfortably.

Yesterday they had started reading through Anthony’s copy of Shakespeare taking it in turns to read. Anthony and Athene often read to each other a chapter at a time, sometimes when they were in the dorm others would listen in. 

They wouldn’t just read out monotonously though. They would give what Mark and Julie called ‘dramatic readings.’ They would read with enthusiasm and do all the different voices.

It was Anthony’s turn to read first today. They were reading through all the plays in the book, but not in order. When each of them read they got to choose which play they wanted to read, and then they would check that play off the list.

They had started last night and Athene had read out A Midsummers Nights Eve. It was Anthony’s turn this morning though.

“I think it’s time we find out about Marky and mine namesakes,” beamed Anthony as he opened the page.

“The Tragedy of Anthony and Cleopatra,” he read as he opened the book to the right page.

“And I presume I’m supposed to be Cleopatra in this tragedy of yours,” Athene muttered.

“No Cleopatra was Egyptian, your names Greek, you’ll be fine.”

“Well that’s alright then,” beamed Athene as she got herself comfortable leaning against the pillow.

They’d got to the end of the Second Act by the time people started actually looking for them.

“Bugger!” muttered Anthony.

“It was about to get to the good bit, I could tell.”

“Well we can finish it off later,” assured Athene.

“No, we can’t you’re going shopping,” he grumbled.

“Anthony Pennington, I assure you it does not take all day to buy a bra! We can finish off the play this afternoon.”

“Now come on silly,” she laughed as she got down off the top shelf, “we’re going to be late!”

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” he smirked leaving his book on the shelf as he hopped down and headed down to breakfast.

“Where the hell have you two been?” asked Mark, who was still half asleep as they joined him for breakfast.

“Ask us no questions and we’ll tell you no lies,” said Anthony.

“Word to the wise,” said Simon, “if you two want to keep your secret hideout secret, stop reading out dramatic readings!”

“Why do you two keep hanging out in the linen closet,” agreed Mark, “this house is huge!”

“Just because,” shrugged Anthony.

Celia joined them for the end of breakfast and shared a piece of toast with Simon.

“Don’t be out all day darling,” said Simon, “I’ll miss you!”

“For gods sake Simon!” muttered Celia.

“We’re only going to Horsham; we’ll be back in time for lunch!”

Simon smiled in relief.

“Come on Athene, let’s get going before these boys start trying to invite themselves along!”

Athene laughed as they went to go and get their coats.

They took the bus into Horsham which only took twenty minutes. 

Then they went into a department store and they walked up to the teen girl’s department where Celia found an assistant.

“Good morning,” said Celia.

“Good morning,” said the young assistant, “how can I help you?”

“Athene here needs her first bra before going back to school.”

“Ah of course,” beamed the assistant.

“Big sister taking you shopping today?”

“Um yeah,” muttered Athene.

Although she had been excited about the fact that she needed a bra, now she felt very self-conscious again.

“We should get you measured up first then.”

Athene looked terrified; she was going to have to take off her jumper in front of a complete stranger! At least the assistant was a woman!

“It’s ok Athene,” assured Celia, “you’ll get measured in the changing room, there won’t be the whole store watching!”

“Just close your eyes, and it’ll all be over before you know it.”

Athene’s nose twitched as if she seemed entirely unconvinced.

“Come on,” chuckled Celia putting an arm around her.

They went through to a spare changing room, and Athene took her jumper off. She still had her vest on, but after she wouldn’t have to wear that after today.

She closed her eyes tight shut as the assistant measured her around the bust.

“It’s all done now,” chuckled Celia, “you can open them!”

It was kind of fun picking out the different bras.

Some of them were lacy, there was some that were light yellow, or the lightest of pinks. Some of the bras were even black!

Celia helped her try them on in the changing room, and in the end, they bought three bras, one white, one light yellow and even one pink.

Athene kept the pink bra on and put her old vest in with the shopping.

“Why don’t we hit the shoe department,” suggested Celia as they finished paying for the bras, “a girl can never have too many shoes!”

Athene’s face lit up, as they headed over to the shoes.

“I think you need a pair of heels, for special occasions,” said Celia.

“Are you serious?” breathed Athene.

“We can’t let all those boys be taller than you all the time!”

Athene tried on several pairs of shoes with a very slight heel. They eventually decided on a pair of navy shoes with four-inch heels.

They were absolutely gorgeous!

They decided to get some navy tights before they went home, so she didn’t have to wear knee high socks for school anymore.

When Athene got home, Mark and Anthony hardly recognised her.

“You’ve grown!” said Mark as Athene stumbled inside. She still hadn’t got used to her new heels yet. Celia was going to teach her how to walk in them that afternoon.

“Wow!” breathed Anthony as he looked her up and down.

“You look,” stammered Anthony, “you look, you look.”

“I look what?” laughed Athene.

“Beautiful,” he finished.

“Thanks,” she laughed blushing slightly.

After lunch, Celia showed Athene how to walk properly in her new heels.

That afternoon Athene was sitting on her bed, massaging her feet. Her shoes had been put back away in their box.

“You alright?” chuckled Anthony as he opened up the box.

“Yeah, just heels take a bit of getting used to I guess!”

“Was it worth it though?” beamed Anthony.

“Yeah I guess it was.”


	28. Chapter 28

“Athene!”

“Hmm?” she muttered opening her eyes ever so slightly.

Anthony was leaning over her his eyes lit up like lightbulbs.

“Don’t do that!” she stammered rubbing sleep out of her eyes, “don’t wake me up like that!”

“Sorry Athy,” he chuckled, “I just couldn’t wait.”

“What time is it?” she muttered.

“Five o’clock.”

“Why in the name of all that is holy have you woken me up at five o’clock?” she snapped glaring at him.

“Because we’re going back to school today, I thought you’d want to do some more reading.”

Anthony looked very foolish and was staring down at his shoes and had his hands in his pockets. He looked as though he wanted to sink into the ground.

“Sorry I woke you up,” he muttered turning to leave, “I’ll see you in a few hours.”

“Wait Tony!” she called as he went out the door.

“Sorry I snapped,” she said smiling slightly.

“Is it your turn to pick?” she asked kindly.

Athene didn’t know what it was, but she couldn’t be angry at anyone for long, especially at Anthony even if he did wake her up at five o’clock!

Anthony turned back around and smiled at her.

“I’ve found the perfect play,” he beamed, “its set during the Trojan War.”

“Oh, like Homer?” she asked excitedly sitting up properly.

It had now become the habit, that Anthony did the reading whilst Athene did her crochet or sewing, so Athene got out her wool and crochet hook to get on with her work.

“So, what’s the play?”

“Troilus and Cressida!” said Anthony dramatically as he opened the book to the first scene.

Athene tried to do her crochet, but it just seemed to come out in a tangled mess today.

“What are you trying to do?” he chuckled.

“I’m trying to learn how to cable crochet, I was going to make a jumper.”

“The wool’s a nice colour,” said Anthony looking at the grey blue wool, “it’ll make a nice jumper!”

“When I get the stitches right!” she laughed as she unpicked her crochet to restart yet again.

Anthony read to her the play, getting all the voices right. Towards the end of the play, they started to hear voices coming from downstairs. Nick and Mark were rushing around trying to find the last of their possessions to pack. Anthony and Athene had packed last night to save the last-minute panic.

Athene sighed slightly; this was going to be the last of their quiet moments until Christmas. Going to boarding school might be exciting but it was hard to get a few minutes peace and quiet. Usually if Harry and Charlie weren’t trying to persuade her to join them for rugby, then Mark and Julie would be dragging Anthony to the practise room to help with practise, whether it was helping Lizzie with her French homework, or helping Julie and Mark rehearse their lines for the latest show, there was always something.

She had gotten used to spending time with Anthony in her quiet attic other the last few weeks, and it was a shame it was having to end.

“Come on then, best get our uniforms on.”

Athene turned up her nose slightly, and Anthony chuckled.

“It won’t be too bad, same St Christopher’s we’ve been going to for two years.”

“I guess you’re right,” she laughed as Anthony left.

She got on her uniform and looked in the mirror. It was the same uniform she had worn three months ago, but she somehow looked so different. There were only a few small changes, she was wearing a bra instead of a vest, and tights instead of socks, but they had somehow made the world of difference. Now instead of looking eleven years old because she was so short and skinny, she actually looked her age, if not slightly older! It might help the fact that she had actually finally hit five foot. She could pass for fourteen at a push.

She skipped down the stairs for breakfast where the boys were waiting for her.

Mark dropped his mouth wide open as he ate his toast.

Anthony had been trying to cut the top of his boiled egg, and Mark nudged his twin brother.

Anthony looked up curiously and dropped his knife in shock which clattered onto the floor.

“Have they changed the girl’s uniforms?” stammered Mark.

“It’s not the uniform that’s changed,” smirked Nick, “but the girl wearing it.”

Athene blushed so red as the twins stared at her that her freckles for once were hardly noticeable.

Nick poked Mark in the ribs, and Mark shut his mouth like a trap and went back to his breakfast.

Anthony came back to his senses and started fumbling around under the table for his knife.

“Here,” chuckled Athene passing it back to him as she sat down next to him.

Athene noticed that Anthony was smiling at her a lot more than usual as he ate his breakfast, maybe Anthony was just in a good mode because they were going back to school today? She tried to ignore him.

“Ok kids,” said Mr Pennington as he finished his paper, “let’s get the kit loaded!”

Athene had decided to leave her new petticoat at home, there was hardly anything she was going to have to use it for at school. Julie might have packed hers, but she probably needed it for a show or something.

They crammed the four sets of luggage into the boot of the car and Simon stood in the doorway to the house. It was a Sunday, and he was still in his pyjama’s. He was very grateful that he wasn’t having to go back to school today because it meant he got a nice day off.

The only reason he had gotten out of bed at all was to wave goodbye to his little brothers, after all he wasn’t going to see them for three months.

Athene got in the back of the car, jammed up next to Anthony and Marks guitar. Athene noticed that Anthony was staring out window straight past her as though she wasn’t even there. She would have been offended, but she had known Anthony for two years and she knew that although he had a great mind, he did tend to go in a daze sometimes and get lost in his thoughts, which gave him a strange kind of expression as if he wasn’t quite there.

When they pulled up at the school the Makenzie’s were in the middle of dropping off Charlie and her older brothers.

“Athene!” screamed Charlie.

She hardly waited for the car to stop before throwing the door open so she could give Athene a hug. If Mr Pennington hadn’t known Charlie was there, he could have easily run her over.

“What the bloody hell happened to you?” said Charlie.

“She had a chance encounter with the fair lady puberty,” said Mark as he got his bags out the car.

“If you wait a few years maybe she’ll meet you too?”

Charlie was now long and lanky, she looked like she was growing overnight. It didn’t help the fact that at the moment her skirt was several inches below her knee. Mrs Makenzie had bought Charlie new skirts, but as she just kept on growing, she had bought them far too long. The other problem was that the rest of her body hadn’t caught up with her yet, so she was still fairly skinny.

It seemed as if Julie was still destined to be the beauty of the three, Charlie was just too boyish with her short hair, and although Athene was pretty, she wasn’t very confident or showy, so boys didn’t always notice her.

Athene headed up to her dorm with Charlie and they started unpacking.

“Hi Charlie,” said Harry coming into their dorm.

Charlie looked up at Harry, with an eager expression. What better excuse to stop unpacking than the timely arrival of one’s boyfriend?


	29. Chapter 29

The week got off to a great start. Matron had helped Athene figure out how to cable crochet stich, so now the jumper was getting along splendidly. There were now thirteen girls in the school, as three more had joined in to the Upper Third.

Lizzie and Lucy had spent the last few days trying to recruit the new girls so they could have a proper cheerleader’s group for the matches.

It was all going great, until Thursday afternoon when they had their first double Latin lesson.

“Right we’re starting off with a test.”

“Oh sir!” groaned Harry.

Julie rolled her eyes at him, and Mark was staring at him incredulously.

“No fair sir!” called Charlie in outrage.

Mr Mitchell coughed loudly, and the protests quietened down.

“I’m giving you a test so I can see what you all remember from last year, and what needs revising.”

There was a large amount of quiet muttering amongst the Upper Fourth students as he handed out the papers.

Athene and Anthony gave each other a quick smile as they looked up from the test papers. This was a piece of cake! They could do this in their sleep!

Anthony quickly scribbled out his answers for the test and then translated the passage at the end.

He put his hand in the air as he finished.

“Yes Anthony?” asked Mr Mitchell somewhat surprised.

They still had ten minutes left. Surely it wasn’t that Anthony was struggling with the paper.

“I’ve finished sir,” he said simply.

“Me too sir,” nodded Athene.

“Of course, you have,” sighed Mr Mitchell shaking his head.

Mr Mitchell collected their papers and marked Athene and Anthony’s tests whilst the rest of the class finished. Unsurprisingly, they both got full marks.

“Overall, not too shabby,” said Mr Mitchell as he flicked through the papers.

“But a lot of you are still struggling with your irregulars, we’re going to have to go over them, aren’t we?”

Mark looked like he’d rather die than revise irregular verb and noun endings, and Julie looked like she actually would die of boredom.

“Don’t worry we’re not going to start today,” he chuckled seeing the looks on half the class, “you’re all free to go.”

“Um not you Anthony, I need to talk to you.”

“What?” stammered Anthony as he looked up at Mr Mitchell. Anthony had been halfway through packing his bag. He and Athene were going to try and get some Shakespeare in before tea.

“Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble,” he chuckled.

Athene looked slightly confused. Did Mr Mitchell want her to stay too? Usually if Mr Mitchell wanted one of them to stay behind after class, he’d ask for both of them.

“We won’t be long Athene; Anthony will see at tea alright?”

“Alright,” muttered Athene taking her bag and leaving the classroom. She looked back over her shoulder at Anthony for a second before closing the classroom door.

“There is a reason why I’ve asked Athene to leave,” Mr Mitchell explained, “it’s because what we’re going to discuss concerns your future.”

“My future sir?” asked Anthony incredulously. He wasn’t even fourteen yet! He still had five years at St. Christopher’s!

“Let’s be honest Anthony,” said Mr Mitchell sitting down on his desk.

“The classes at St. Christopher’s have never been exactly intellectually stimulating for you, have they?”

“What do you mean sir?”

“I mean you might not be reaching your full potential, most of your classmates aren’t as academically inclined as you.”

“Athene is, and we do extra reading around all our subjects. We’re working our way through Shakespeare!” he said excitedly.

“By the way, why isn’t Athene here?”

“It’ll all make sense if you let me explain,” said Mr Mitchell smiling slightly.

“You want to go to university right?”

“Yes,” nodded Anthony keenly.

“Good! University life would suit you well. It shouldn’t be a challenge for you to get into, but if you want to be more intellectually challenged now, you’ll have to change schools.”

“What?” asked Anthony. 

Why would he want to change schools? He was happy here. Wasn’t he?

“I was talking to one of my old university friends the other day, he’s a Latin master at Harrow. I told him about you, and he’d like to meet you.”

“Harrow!” exclaimed Anthony.

He’d heard of that, nearly everyone had. It was a public boys school, it was almost as famous as Eton! Then it suddenly hit him the reason that Athene hadn’t been invited to this meeting, Harrow didn’t take girls, he’d be leaving her behind if he went.

“You don’t have to make any decisions yet Anthony,” said Mr Mitchell, “just think about it.”

“Tell you what, why don’t I write to Mr Grainger, and he can come and talk to you, if you don’t want to go after talking to him, you can stay here.”

Anthony nodded with a slight smile on his face.

He had missed tea, and now couldn’t talk to Athene until after prep.

That evening after prep they all gathered in the girls dorm.

“So what’s up Tony?” asked Mark.

“What do you mean what’s up?”

“Well you’ve been acting weird since old Mitch kept you back after class,” said Charlie.

Anthony bit his lip slightly, there was no use denying it, he was going to have to tell them all sometime.

“I’ve been offered a place at Harrow,” he muttered, “someone’s coming here for an interview next week.”

“Harrow!” exclaimed Harry.

“That’s one of the best schools in the country!”

“But why are they offering you a place?” asked Charlie.

“Well it seems that Mr Mitchell thinks I’m being held back here,” he muttered, “academically, I mean.”

Anthony looked very awkward as he said all this, these were his friends, and here he was basically calling them all thick.

“Well Mitch talked to one of his old mates, Mr Grainger, the Classics teacher at Harrow, they think I’d be better suited there than I am here.”

“Anthony that’s amazing!” said Julie giving him a hug.

“Well done Tony!” beamed Mark patting his brother on the back.

“But why wasn’t Athene offered an interview too?” asked Charlie confused, “she’s just as bright as you are.”

“If not brighter,” added Julie.

“It’s an all-boys school,” explained Harry somewhat awkwardly.

“So are you going to take it then Tony?” asked Mark.

“I don’t know,” he muttered, “I want to go to university, and this could give me a good head start.”

“You guys don’t mind me leaving?” asked Anthony.

“Well I’d miss you,” said Mark, “but distance could never keep us apart.”

“Opportunities like this don’t come everyday Tons,” said Harry.

“You can’t just throw this away,” agreed Charlie.

“It sounds like this place was made for boffins like you,” beamed Julie.

Anthony looked over at Athene, who had been very quiet for the whole discussion. She hadn’t said a word since they had sat down. They all turned to her expectantly as if waiting for her to say something.

Athene jumped off the bed and ran from the room, without saying a word to any of them.


	30. Chapter 30

Mark was in the middle of saying “leave her,” but Anthony had already followed Athene out of the room.

“Athene!” called Anthony running down the corridor after her.

“Wait! I need to talk to you!”

Athene had run out into the grounds, and Anthony followed her into the middle of the Rugby pitch.

Athene was sitting in the middle of the pitch trying to get her breath back from trying to run away from Anthony.

“What the hell do you want from me!” she screamed. It was slightly windy and her long red plaits were blowing in the wind, she looked like an angry tempest with her hair blowing in the wind and her eyes on fire with anger.

“What?” stammered Anthony flabbergasted. Athene never got angry at anyone, she sometimes got upset, but she’d hardly ever shout at her friends, but here she was screaming at him at the top of her lungs.

“I thought you’d be too busy packing for your posh new school to both with me anymore!”

“I haven’t been offered a place yet,” said Anthony, “I might not even go!”

“Well of course you’re going to fucking go!” she yelled.

“This place is holding you back right? Well I’m just one of the things holding you back!”

“What no!” he tried to interject.

“Don’t even bother!” she spat.

“Anthony!” she said quickly, “it may not have occurred to you before, but you’re the only friend I’ve ever had.”

“You’ve got other.”

“Don’t interrupt me!” she said in barley above a whisper her eyes full of rage.

Anthony gulped and swallowed deeply.

“If you want to leave fine! You’ll probably make new friends within a few weeks at your posh school anyway, and you’ll forget you even knew me!”

“I could never.”

She glared at him again and he shut up instantly.

“I know you’re bright, but if your fucking grades and exams are more important to you than the friends you’ve already got, then I don’t want anything to do with you!”

Athene legged it back inside, and left Anthony standing out there on his own on the pitch. What was going on? Harrow had offered him a place which was confusing in itself. The others had all been really happy, but Athene had been furious. But why?

Athene was his best friend in the whole world, and he usually had a better connection with her than with Mark, and he and Mark were twins!

But this just didn’t make any sense!

After a while Anthony went back to the boarding house, the door to the Upper Fourth girl’s dorm was shut though, and it seemed like Harry and Mark had been thrown out, as Mark was practising his guitar on his bed, and Harry was reading an adventure story.

“I don’t know what you said to Athens,” said Harry, as he turned a page, “but she’s in a right mode.”

“I didn’t say anything,” muttered Anthony flopping down on his bed.

He didn’t get out a book or anything though, he just stared up at the ceiling.

This had been a week ago. Athene had been avoiding Anthony all week since she had yelled at him. At first Anthony had just thought that Athene was embarrassed about it, and Anthony tried to talk to her, but every time he did, she ran out of the room. She wasn’t sitting next to him in class anymore, she had swapped seats with Harry so now she was sitting next to Charlie in all her lessons.

Today was his interview for Harrow, if this went well, Anthony would be joining Harrow after half term. At the moment the thought of even that one more month of Athene ignoring him seemed like a lifetime.

He straightened his tie before going into Mr Mitchell’s office, where Mr Mitchell was sitting with Mr Grainger.

“So this must be young Anthony?” asked Mr Grainger keenly.

Mr Grainger was rotund balding man, it was strange to think that he was the same age as Mr Mitchell, he looked at least fifteen years older, but he seemed just as jolly so he couldn’t be too bad.

“Hello sir!” beamed Anthony shaking Mr Grainger’s hand.

“So what’s your favourite subject?”

“Well I love Classics obviously,” he beamed, “it seems to come naturally to me. Other than that I enjoy everything, history, English, I’m quite good at maths.”

“I’ve started working my way through Shakespeare,” he added, “me and um… a friend of mine.”

Anthony stopped awkwardly; he had nearly just brought up Athene.

“Any extracurricular? Hobbies?”

“Well I’m not exactly athletic,” muttered Anthony.

“Not everyone is,” shrugged Mr Grainger.

“I’m quite good at the piano, and I love taking pictures and filming with my camera.”

“Ah you’re a photographer!” exclaimed Mr. Grainger, “excellent, excellent!”

“You’ll fit right in, that’s if of course you want to join us.”

“That’s it?” asked Anthony, “that’s all you needed to ask me?”

“Well I’ve already got your grades here, they’re more than exemplary. Mitch has told me about you of course, you’d be a real credit to the school.”

“Well then in that case, I’d be honoured!”

Then Anthony remembered Athene again, before he accepted anything, he needed to find out what was wrong.

“Can I have a bit of time to think about it though?”

“Oh yes of course,” he nodded, “you’ve still got a month until half term.”

“Thank you,” beamed Anthony, “I’ll ring you with my response.”

“I’ll be here with Mitch for another half an hour if you make a decision.”

“Thank you sir!” called Anthony as he left.

Anthony went back up to the dorms and looked across the corridor to the closed door of the girls dorm.

He knocked quietly on the door, but there was no answer.

He opened the door slowly and looked into the dorm, and as he thought she might be, Athene was lying on top of her bed reading.

She was so beautiful just lying there, she had undone her plaits, so her long hair was spread out all over the bed. He had never realised how beautiful her hair was until today, it was like Autumn leaves, there had to be five different shades of dark red in there, and it was different yet again when the light shined onto it.

“Athene,” he called quietly.

“Go away Anthony,” she muttered not looking up from her book.

“No,” he said firmly sitting down on her bed, “I won’t.”

“And why the hell not?”

“Because I want you to listen to me, you’ve been avoiding me for a week, but this is important.”

Athene rolled her eyes exaggeratedly and slammed her book shut before looking at him expectantly, waiting for him to say something.

“I get it if you hate me,” he muttered, “I’d hate this to be the other way around.”

“This you saying goodbye then?” asked Athene, “you doing the rounds?

“No!” Anthony exclaimed, “I wouldn’t be leaving for a month anyway, even if I did accept.”

“You haven’t accepted?” she asked astounded.

“Not yet,” he muttered, “no.”

Athene looked at him confused.

“You said no? Why would you do that?”

“Well I was going to say yes,” said Anthony, “but then I thought about what you said last week.”

“Don’t let me hold you back,” muttered Athene trying to reopen her book.

“No, what I mean is you were right, we’ve got five years until University, that’s plenty of time, and our grades are perfect, they’d have to be stupid to turn us down.”

“I can get into university without spending five years at Harrow.”

“What about being held back academically?” she asked warming back up to him slightly.

“I think you and I have found a way around that already,” he said smirking, “extensive extra reading.”

Athene giggled slightly, it was the first time she had laughed in a week, she had returned back to her usual self.

“So you’ve staying?” she asked.

“Yeah I’m staying,” he chuckled, “I can study anywhere, but I’m never going to make new friends like the ones I’ve already got.”

“There’s another reason why I didn’t want you to go,” muttered Athene biting her lip, “I just didn’t tell you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, you’re my best friend, and I got upset because I couldn’t imagine this place without you. But it’s more than that! I was angry when you were going to leave, because I don’t want you to leave me behind, you mean a lot to me, and I couldn’t stand staying here if you were to go!”

“Athene,” muttered Anthony pushing her loose hair of her face, “that’s the reason I didn’t say yes, I couldn’t bear to leave with us being on bad terms like we were. But I know now that I couldn’t bear to live my life without you in it.”

Athene smiled at Anthony as he finished talking and kissed him lightly on the lips.

It was electric, nothing had even felt so perfect!

Anthony kissed her back and ran his fingers through her long thick hair. He had never noticed until today how Athene smelt of flowers, she smelt of lavender and roses.

“Hmm,” he mumbled as they kissed sitting on top of her bed.

“Athene,” he muttered, still half kissing her

“Hmm.”

“I need to go talk to Mr Grainger,” he said as they broke apart, “tell him I can’t accept.”

“Oh of course!” said Athene.

She seemed somewhat crestfallen that Anthony had to leave, if only just for a few minutes.

“Want to come with me?” he asked beaming.

Athene looked ecstatic and took Anthony’s hand as they ran down the corridor together. They didn’t care about no running in the corridors today, they were too happy to care!

Anthony knocked on Mr Mitchell’s office door, and when he answered it, Anthony and Athene were beaming like Cheshire Cats and seemed to be struggling to hold back laughter.

“You’ve changed your mind?” asked Mr Grainger as he came over to the door.

“I can’t change schools sir,” said Anthony half laughing.

“May I ask why?” asked Mr Grainger. He didn’t seem to be offended, merely curious.

Anthony didn’t say anything but just looked at Athene and they both burst into hysterics.

“Ah well if there’s a young lady involved enough said,” admitted Mr Grainger.

“I’m glad you’re staying Anthony,” smiled Mr Mitchell, “and I’m glad you’re back to normal Athene.”


	31. Chapter 31

Anthony was reading to Athene; they were reading Romeo and Juliet that evening. For some reason they felt like reading a romance. Athene was working steadily on the first sleeve of her jumper which was starting to grow quite quickly now she knew what she was doing. 

Harry, Charlie, Julie and Mark came back into the room at this point all chatting cheerfully. They had just got back from the Cadet Meeting and Choir Practise.

“Mr Wells is considering forming a smaller girls choir, there are quite a few girls now, he wants us to sing Ave Maria at the carol service.”

“You should join Athene,” beamed Julie, “you’ve got a beautiful voice.”

“I’m good thanks,” said Athene as she counted stitches, “stage fright.”

“What happened to you two?” asked Mark looking between Anthony and Athene.

It was if the last week had never happened, Anthony was reading to Athene, and they both had smiles a mile wide on their faces.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” smirked Anthony.

Mark decided to leave this for now.

“So how did your interview go?” asked Charlie as she pulled off her boots.

“It went well,” said Anthony.

“So when do you leave?” asked Harry.

“Well if you’re that desperate to get rid of me Harry I might just take them up on their offer.”

“What are you talking about Anthony?” asked Mark confused.

Mark had thought that Anthony wanted to go to Harrow, so that he could go to school with people who were more academically inclined like him.

“I’m not going,” he said simply.

“What?” asked Julie choking on a glass of water, surely, she had misheard things.

“But why?” stammered Harry.

“You must be crazy to turn them bloody down!” said Charlie.

“The situation has changed, I realised that I can still study here, and I’d rather stay here with my friends.”

Athene smiled up at him slightly.

“Anthony, you can make friends anywhere,” chuckled Mark.

“There’s something you’re not telling us isn’t there?” asked Charlie grinning mischievously.

Anthony and Athene grinned at each other from other ends of the bed.

“You haven’t?” asked Mark beaming.

“Haven’t what?” asked Charlie.

“Done what we’ve been saying they’d do since first year,” smirked Julie.

“Romeo had finally found his Juliet!” said Mark kneeling down dramatically.

“Star crossed lovers, torn apart by fate find each other at the last moment!” said Julie with her hand over her heart before fainting exaggeratedly onto her bed.

“You lot are a bunch of prats!” laughed Athene throwing pillows at them both.

“But we’re right aren’t we?” asked Julie sitting back up properly.

“Maybe,” muttered Anthony.

“You’re not as crazy as I thought Tony,” said Harry ruffling his hair.

“Harrow might be full of boffins like you, but there’s no girls!”

That night after the boys left, the girls stayed up for another midnight feast. It was much better than they had used to be, as there was no longer any rationing. They each had loads of sweets and cakes. Lucy even had a box of chocolates from her boyfriend back home which she shared around with the other girls.

They were doing each other’s hair by torchlight. Charlie didn’t care much for hair, she had very short hair, and she didn’t like doing other people’s so she chatted away whilst the other girls did their hair. Julie plaited usually plaited Athene’s hair up into a crown on top of her head, but this time she took the hair ribbons that Athene usually tied on to the bottom of her plaits and plaited them into one long plait down Athene’s back.

“So Athens,” said Charlie grinning mischievously.

“It’s time to answer the question we’re all dying to know,” said Julie.

“What?” asked Athene trying not to laugh.

“What was it like to kiss Anthony?” asked Lizzie as Lucy nodded.

“What?” laughed Athene.

“What are you talking about, you know what it’s like to kiss people! You’ve got boyfriends Charlie and Lizzie, and you Julie must have kissed Mark dozens of times on the stage.”

“Stage kissing doesn’t count,” said Julie, “I’ve never kissed anyone properly.”

“And Harry’s just Harry,” said Charlie, “he’s a pretty energetic and full on bloke. Our kissing is usually fast and energetic and often, but never lasts very long, we usually have something else to be doing.”

“But Anthony’s so shy and sensitive,” said Lizzie.

“What’s it like to kiss the forms biggest bookworm?” asked Lucy.

“Apart from you obviously,” added Charlie.

“You guys really want to know, don’t you?” laughed Athene.

The other four girls nodded enthusiastically.

“Oh alright then,” sighed Athene smiling broadly.

“Well, I started by kissing him on the lips, I thought for a moment he was going to pull away, but then he didn’t.”

“He started kissing me gently and slowly. I closed my eyes, and the world had never seemed more perfect. I wanted it go on for hours!”

“Did you do tongues?” asked Lizzie.

“No,” laughed Athene.

“Shh,” said Lucy who was enthralled by the story, “go on Athene.”

“As I said it felt perfect, Anthony wasn’t leaving, we were talking again, and we had realised that we loved each other. I was starting to lose myself in his kiss when I started to feel something else.”

“What?” breathed Julie.

“Anthony had started to run his fingers through my hair, it was already down and he was stroking my hair softly. I was surprised, but I didn’t stop him, nothing had ever felt more right!”

“What did he taste like?” asked Lizzie.

“Uggh!” muttered Lucy who had never kissed a boy.

“Harry tastes like peppermint, usually a cross between toothpaste and mint humbugs.”

“My boyfriend Peter tastes of chocolate,” beamed Lizzie, “his favourite sweets.”

“To be honest?” asked Athene.

“His lips tasted like rhubarb crumble,” she giggled.

“Rhubarb crumble!” Julie asked incredulously.

Charlie and Lizzie where in hysterical fits of laughter.

“Shhh,” said Lucy still giggling, “or Matron will come in!”

“There was rhubarb crumble for pudding today, so that’s what he tasted like!” laughed Athene.

“And he smells like a delicious combination between old books and freshly laundered bedsheets.”

“Only you could be turned on by old books,” muttered Charlie.

“But why does he smell like clean laundry?” asked Lizzie confused.

“I think it’s the soap he uses,” explains Athene, “I think it has cotton init.”

“How do you know what soap he uses?” asked Julie suspiciously.

“Have you two been up to something?” asked Charlie trying to hide back a grin.

“Because I live with him for half the holidays!” laughed Athene.

“Oh right of course,” said Julie nodding.

“We completely believe you,” said Charlie in a sarcastic tone.


	32. Chapter 32

This chapter was written on 9th November, Remembrance Sunday 2020 in memory of those soldiers who have fallen for their country in the first two world wars, and every war since. We shall remember them.

(Copyright, I Vow To Thee my Country, Eternal Father Strong to Save, God Save The Queen, and For The Fallen. These are all songs, and a poem traditionally used in a Remembrance Day service in England. For any American readers out there, you may already be familiar with the tune to God Save the Queen, it is the original tune for My Country is to Thee.)

11th November 1954

Dear Dad, 

How are you? I hope you and Mum are having a nice time up there, you’ve probably found Granny and Grandpa now, so you’re all happy together.

It’s Remembrance Day, so I’m writing to you. I think about you every day, but even more today, especially as you died in November, so I thought I’d write to you.

Anthony and I have been together for nearly two months now. You never knew him, but I wrote to you about him a few times. You would have liked him, Anthony’s usually quite quiet with his head in a book, but he’s not afraid to stand up for what he believes in. 

He shouted at Grandpa the first time he ever met him! For some reason, Grandpa always respected him after that for standing up for his opinions.

Fred and Ginger are still spinning madly, but they don’t usually go by Fred and Ginger anymore, they usually call each other Mark and Julie now.

Anthony and I are thinking about going to university in a few years now, I’m thinking about either taking Latin or French. I’ll probably take Classics though because the subject fascinates me, particularly Latin Literature, Anthony and I have been reading through a copy of Ovid’s Metamorphoses from the library.

My crochet’s getting very good! I’ve nearly finished my first jumper, don’t tell Anthony, but I’m actually making it for him as a Christmas present.

I’ve started living with Uncle Davy in the holidays when I’m not visiting the Pennington’s, the base he’s at is only fifteen minutes away, so he sometimes takes Anthony and I out at weekends to go for tea or go to the cinema.

I don’t know if you’re reading this, but I was thinking of you, so I thought I’d write. I know that you Mum, Granny and Grandpa are watching over me and making sure I’m alright.

Send my love to Mummy, Granny and Grandpa,

I miss you all loads! Love always, Athene Ruth Richards.

“Athene we’re going to be late!” said Julie.

“What are you doing?” asked Julie confused.

“I’m writing to my Dad.”

“Your Dads dead,” said Julie.

“I know that,” said Athene shrugging, “I’m going to put the letter by the memorial.”

“Even if my Dad doesn’t read it, it makes me feel slightly better that there’s even a possibility that Dad’s reading it.”

“That actually makes sense,” said Julie, “in a strange kind of way.”

“How’s my hair?” asked Charlie desperately.

“It’s fine,” said Athene straightening Charlie’s hat slightly on top of her bun.

Charlie was in her cadet uniform and was practising her salute.

They were getting ready for the Remembrance Day service, they didn’t have lessons anyway as it was a Saturday. 

The local chaplain was coming in from the village to hold the service, and all the cadets were wearing their uniforms. Everyone else was wearing their school uniforms even if it was Saturday.

Athene carefully tied some black velvet ribbons on the end of her plaits and picked her letter off of her desk.

“You girls ready?” asked Harry poking his head around the door.

“Aye aye sir!” said Charlie giving him her best salute.

“Remember that,” he muttered holding her close, “I might want you to do that again later.”

“Don’t mess up my hair,” laughed Charlie, “I only just got it right.”

“You two are disgusting you know that?” asked Mark.

He seemed to think that this was an entire waste of a perfectly good Saturday morning, he should be practising. He was going to make up for it this afternoon though.

“You alright Athene?” asked Anthony putting his arm around her waist.

“Hmm,” she muttered picking up her letter and a small posy of poppy’s.

“Come on then,” said Anthony.

It was a good thing it wasn’t raining, even if it was cold, because the Remembrance Day service had to be held outside, because the statue was outside.

There was several hundred chairs set up outside by the war Memorial. There was an soldier coming home from war, and the names of all the students from the school who had died during the two wars. It seemed strange to think, that there was more names engraved on that statue than there was students at the school now.

It wasn’t just the students coming to the service though, some troops from the nearby military bases of Andover and Aldershot were coming. They were going to be standing at the front with the St Christopher’s military cadets for the whole service. At least Athene and Anthony were going to get to be able to sit down, Harry and Charlie were going to have to stand to attention for the whole service.

Athene sat down with Anthony at the front as she had to go up to lay something at the monument.

As the troops, and the cadets marched up to front, they all singed I Vow To Thee My Country.

I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above,  
Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love;  
The love that asks no questions, the love that stands the test,  
That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best;  
The love that never falters, the love that pays the price,  
The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.

And there's another country, I've heard of long ago,  
Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know;  
We may not count her armies, we may not see her King;  
Her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering;  
And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase,   
And her ways are ways of gentleness, and all her paths are peace.

The troops that had come to show their respect for their fallen comrades were carrying their regimental flags, and the cadets also had their regimental flag. Nick was standing proudly at the front, holding up the British flag. As they got to the front, they all formed in three straight lines and stood to attention, facing the monument.

The vicar came up to the front and stood in front of the people standing attention.

“Good morning, in a few minutes we will have the Last Post and the two minutes silence, but first of all I would like to remind you all, that whilst we commentate our fallen soldiers today from the two world wars, there are still other wars going on today, in Malaya for example.”

Athene bit her lip to stop herself from crying.

“The 1914-18 war was supposed to be the great war, the war to end all wars. Unfortunately of course it wasn’t, so whilst thinking about our fallen heroes today, let us also hope that we won’t have another world war, ever again.”

The headmaster came up to the microphone, he was carrying a huge book. Athene knew why the book was so large, and why they always had to start the service at twenty to eleven, because the death list was so long.

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them.”

“We will remember them,” replied the whole school.

Then there was silence as the headmaster put on his reading glasses.

“First, the 1914-18 war. Barney Archibald, David Archibald, Henry Archibald, Walter Archibald, Christopher Arnold.”

The list went on, for what felt like hours, until he finally reached the last name Richard Wells.

Athene noticed Mr Wells the music and drama teacher flinch slightly at this last name, he was carrying a wreath like everyone else in the front row, maybe Richard Wells had been his brother?

At this point, one of the boys from the Lower Fifth came up to the microphone with his trumpet, and he played the last post.

As the boy finished playing there was dead silence throughout the grounds, apart from the ringing of the clock tower, for eleven o’clock.

It was such a waste! Thought Athene tears in her eyes as she stood silently next to Anthony. So many people had died.

Anthony squeezed her hand slightly as she cried.

At the end of the two minutes silence the vicar came back up in front of the students.

“Before we lay the wreaths, I would like us to remember our forces, those who have served in them, and those who are still serving in them now. There are two versions of this song, but we are going to be singing the newer version of this song which remembers all three areas of her majesties forces, the army, air force and navy, not just the navy. If you would all please join me in singing, Eternal Father Strong to Save.”

Almighty Father, strong to save,  
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,  
Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep  
Its own appointed limits keep:  
O hear us when we cry to thee  
For those in peril on the sea.

O Christ, the Lord of hill and plain  
O'er which our traffic runs amain  
By mountain pass or valley low;  
Wherever, Lord, thy brethren go,  
Protect them by thy guarding hand  
From every peril on the land.  
O Spirit, whom the Father sent  
To spread abroad the firmament;  
O Wind of heaven, by thy might  
Save all who dare the eagle's flight,  
And keep them by thy watchful care  
From every peril in the air.

O Trinity of love and power,  
Our brethren shield in danger's hour;  
From rock and tempest, fire and foe,  
Protect them whereso'er they go,  
Thus evermore shall rise to thee  
Glad praise from air and land and sea.  
At the end of the hymn, a small line began to form of people with wreaths or flowers to lay. People with family in the forces, or who knew someone how had died in the service for their country. There was about fifty in the line in total, including Mr Wells who was carrying a wreath of Poppy’s that had an old black and white photograph of two brother’s attached.  
As they finished singing, the troops and cadets saluted the statue and stood rigidly still as people walked up to pay their respects.  
Athene reached in her pocket and pulled out her own small offering, her little posy of poppy’s and her letter.  
The line slowly moved forwards and Athene slowly found herself moving forwards in the line.  
As each person reached the statue, they gave a brief salute or nod of the head before leaving their poppys in a free space on the statue.   
Athene was one of the last person people to go up. She gave the soldier on the statue a salute, before kneeling down and finding a spare place left around the statue.  
“I miss you Dad,” she whispered softly before kissing the letter and placing her small bunch of flowers and the letter down in a free space.  
It was a windy day and the letter blew away as she got up.   
She tried to catch it, but Mr Wells who had been standing behind caught it almost instantly.  
He gave her a small smile before taking her hand.  
They both walked up to the monument together and laid his own wreath.  
He weighted her letter down with his wreath so that it wouldn’t blow away again.  
“Thank you,” she said smiling at Mr Wells.  
Mr Wells shrugged and they both went down from the statue so the last few people could lay their own wreaths.  
“You alright?” whispered Anthony as she came back to her seat.  
“I’m fine,” muttered Athene sitting down.  
When the final offering had been laid, then the headmaster came back up to the front.  
“And now we shall end with the singing of our national anthem.”  
“God Save the Queen!”  
God save our gracious Queen,  
Long live our noble Queen,  
God save the Queen!  
Send her victorious,  
Happy and glorious,  
Long to reign over us,  
God save the Queen!  
O Lord our God arise,  
Scatter our enemies,  
And make them fall!  
Confound their politics,  
Frustrate their knavish tricks,  
On Thee our hopes we fix,  
God save us all!  
Not in this land alone,  
But be God’s mercies known,  
From shore to shore!  
Lord make the nations see,  
That men should brothers be,  
And form one family,  
The wide world o’er.  
From every latent foe,  
From the assassins blow,  
God save the Queen!  
O’er her thine arm extend,  
For Britain’s sake defend,  
Our mother, prince, and friend,  
God save the Queen!  
Thy choicest gifts in store,  
On her be pleased to pour,  
Long may she reign!  
May she defend our laws,  
And ever give us cause,  
To sing with heart and voice,  
God save the Queen!  
As they finished singing the national anthem, Charlie and the others finally stepped out of the salute and out of attention, and marched to the back.  
When they finished singing Athene turned to Mr Wells who looked like he was about to leave.  
“Mr Wells,” said Athene.  
“Can I talk to you for a moment.”  
“If it really is a moment Athene,” said Mr Wells, “I’ve got choir practise soon.”  
“Thank you for earlier,” she said.  
“Oh it’s nothing,” he muttered.  
“And I’m sorry about your brother Richard.”  
“How did you know?” he exclaimed.  
“I guessed,” she said smiling slightly.  
“Me and my brother both went to school here, he died in the war, but I lived, he was two years older than me.”  
“I really am sorry,” she said.  
“And I’m sorry about your father,” he said putting his hands on her shoulders, “no one should ever lose their father that young.”


	33. Chapter 33

Nick was pacing around in front of the Common Room frantically. There was only a month left until the Christmas entertainment, and they had to get it right, this was his last year. He had arranged an meeting for the whole house to discuss what they were going to do that year.  
Most of the students were already there and chatting excitedly, Mr Mitchell was sitting down at the back. Athene and Anthony came running breathlessly into the room at five o’clock exactly, just as his second hand reached five o’clock.  
“You two are late,” he said firmly.  
“Now come on Nick,” said Mark who had only shone up thirty seconds earlier.  
“Very nearly,” he muttered.  
“Uncle David took us to the cinema!” said Athene.  
“We had to que up to get the album!” said Anthony showing a large paper envelope.  
“I’ll let you off this time,” he sighed, smiling slightly.  
“Thanks Nick,” beamed Anthony as they went to go sit down.  
“Right now, everyone’s here, has anyone got any ideas?”  
“Can’t we just pretend to be the teachers,” said one of the sixth formers.  
“Like we do every year,” nodded one of his friends.  
“My Dragon’s getting pretty good,” beamed Harry.  
There were many murmurs of assent from throughout the room from those who had seen Harry’s true to life impression of Mr Davies on the parade ground.  
“I’m sure it is Harry,” said Nick, “but isn’t that exactly what all the other houses are going to do?”  
“And so?” asked Graham.  
“What’s so wrong with that?” asked one of the fifth formers.  
“Because,” interjected Nick, “if everyone’s going to be doing it shouldn’t we try something different, something current?”  
The others all looked confused.  
“Well what have we got lot that the others haven’t?”  
“Ladies!” shouted Malcom.  
“Spot on that boy!” laughed Mr Mitchell, “there are your greatest asset.”  
“Whereas the other houses have around a hundred boys in each house, we have seventy boys and thirteen girls,” said Anthony.  
“Thank you for the statistics Brian of Britain,” said Harry.  
“Anything else?” asked Nick.  
Charlie and Harry stood up and walked to the front both grinning mischievously.  
“Fred and Ginger spinning madly!” said Charlie dramatically holding out her hand for Harry’s.  
They then span around the room exaggeratedly together to great applause and laughter.  
“Ha ha very funny!” said Mark with his arms folded.  
Julie merely rolled her eyes at them.  
“No actually they’re right,” said one of the fifth formers, “he have got Mark and Julie.”  
“Can’t we just centre our whole show around them and the rest of us can just back down this year?” asked one of the sixth formers.  
“Nobody is going to put up with watching Mark and Julie prancing around the stage on their own for forty minutes,” drawled Lizzie.  
“Besides it would be no fun for the rest of us,” sighed one of the third form girls who had been looking forward to being in her first Christmas entertainment.  
“Why don’t we do a musical?” asked Julie.  
“Or more specifically a parody of one,” agreed Rupert.  
Nick nodded, he was starting to like the sound of things.  
“Which one?”  
Mark leaped up onto his feet and started singing and tapping around the crowded room, dancing his way out of people.  
“I’m singin in the rain! I’m just singin in the rain! Come on with the rain!”  
“No,” said Nick, “no Gene Kelly impressions.”  
Mark looked slightly mutinous.  
“Maybe next year Marky,” said Anthony patting his brother on the back as Mark sat back down grudgingly.  
“If you lot want to do a musical we should probably get Mr Wells involved,” said Mr Mitchell.  
“We’ll go see him once we’ve picked a show,” said Mark.  
“Any other ideas?”  
“The Wizard of Oz?”   
“Not current enough.”  
“And not enough parts,” sighed Julie.  
“Unless we’re going to have a chorus of sixty munchkins,” smirked Charlie.  
“We represent the lollipop guild!” sang several of the fourth formers.  
“I think I’ve got it,” said Anthony fishing in his bag.  
“What is it?” asked Nick.  
He handed Nick the record they had bought in the cinema.  
“Seven Brides for Seven Brothers?” muttered Nick reading off the front cover.  
“Yeah it’s really good,” said Athene, “we’ve seen it three times.”  
“We’ve seen it ten times!” added Mark.  
There was a point during the Summer holidays when Mark and Julie had gone to go and see that film three times a week.  
“It could work,” muttered Nick.  
“We could do Thirteen Girls For Seventy-One Boys,” suggested Mark, “but instead of looking for brides, they’re looking for girlfriends.”  
“You know I think we’ve got it,” said Nick beaming.  
“We’re going to have to dance aren’t we,” sighed Graham.  
Thirteen Girls for Seventy-One Boys-  
Cast list-  
Julie- as Jane  
Mark- as Michael  
Charlie- as Artie  
Graham- as George  
Anthony- as Adam  
Athene- as Diana  
Lizzie- as Rachael  
Lucy- as Emma  
Malcom- as Benjamin  
Rupert- as Reggie  
Nick- as Mr Mitchell  
Harry- as Mr Davies  
Eight boys as other main boys  
Eight girls as other girls  
Fifty six boys as background actors/ chorus  
Opening-  
Adam comes out in front of screen that is pulled down over the stage.  
Adam- Our tale this afternoon takes place in the fine House of Mitchell. There has been a problem recently, because there are several girls in the house but far more boys than girls. We proudly present to you to the tale of Thirteen Boys for Seventy-One Boys.  
Adam walks backstage, and the Main Title from Seven Brides for Seven Brother’s is played. A spotlight is shone on the closed curtain, and you can see the shadow of thirteen couples dancing to the music.  
At the end of the song, the curtain is raised, and Michael is standing on stage alone. Michael is standing on the stage alone with his hands in his pockets and looking thoroughly miserable.  
Michael- Oh woe is me! Sighs dramatically. What is point in being as handsome as me when I cant find my true love!  
I need to find my perfect dance partner, for Fred is useless without his Ginger.  
Jane enters the stage and looks over at Michael.  
Michael sings Bless Your Beautiful Hide to the audience, singing about Jane.  
Michael walks over to Jane at end of song and takes Jane’s hands in his.  
Michael- You have beautiful eyes!  
Jane looks the other way on purpose, trying to tease him.  
Jane- Yes I know I’ve been told!  
Michael- Whats your name?  
Jane- Jane.  
Michael- Jane what a beautiful name!  
Michael- Dance with me!  
Jane- I’m sorry what?  
Michael holds his hand out for hers.  
Michael- Dance with me Jane!  
Jane smiles at Michael and takes Michael’s hand. They waltz around the stage to the tune of Wonderful Wonderful Day. By the end of the song they are looking lovingly into each other’s eyes. The song ends with a deep kiss between Michael and Jane.  
Jane- I love you Michael!  
Michael- I know! (somewhat pompously.) Oh yeah, I love you too Julie.  
Jane- It’s Jane!  
Michael- Sorry (grinning innocently.)  
Jane looks somewhat unimpressed for a moment before smiling at Michael again.  
Enter stage George, Adam, Benjamin and Reggie, and several other boys  
George- looking incredulously at Jane Who’s this?  
Jane- laughing Have you never seen a girl before?  
Benjamin- Not such a beautiful one no  
Reggie- or one who looks into Michael’s eyes quite so lovingly.  
Michael- proudly This is Jane, she’s my girlfriend.  
George, Benjamin and Reggie- Your girlfriend!  
Reggie- Where do we get one of those?  
Adam- looking up from his book Why don’t you try talking to her?  
George- What about?  
Adam- returning to his book having had enough of the conversation- I don’t know a book?  
Benjamin- Why is your answer to everything a book Adam?  
Michael- It’s easy, tell her she’s pretty, and then dance with her.  
Adam- Not everyone likes dancing Michael- leaves stage still reading  
Jane- Ignore him boys, ignore all of them. The key to getting a girl to notice you, is to compliment her and then dance with her.  
Jane explains to the boys about dating rituals by singing Going Courtin. The eleven boys on stage join in with song towards the end.  
(Change to end of song) Keep your readin, and writin, and addin, and shootin, and rugby, and Latin, cause we’re going courtin!  
Reggie- So when you going to teach us how to dance Jane?  
Jane- Right now if you want  
Boys look at each other excitedly.  
Mr Davies yelling from off stage- where are my cadets!!  
Boys- Bloody hell! It’s the dragon!!  
Mr Davies marches onto the stage- over the top. Cadets gather on stage, already twelve boys in second row. Artie standing impatiently in the front row waiting for the boys to arrive. The other eleven boys run breathlessly onto the stage and take their places in the line.  
Mr Davies screams- And where the bloody hell have you lot been?  
Boy 1 cowering- We meant to be here on time!  
Mr Davies- Meant to! Meant to!  
Walks over to boy and lifts him in the air.  
Mr Davies- Well that’s not good enough is it boyo?  
Boy trembles and doesn’t answer.  
Mr Davies- Is it boyo?  
Boy 1- No dragon. I mean sir!  
Puts him back down on the ground and mutters at him and he gets back into line.  
Mr Davies- So why were lot late then?  
Reggie- We had a dancing lesson.  
Artie who is standing next to Reggie looks slightly impressed.  
Mr Davies screams and face goes red- Dancing lessons! Dancing lessons! Are you ruddy kidding me!  
Comic drill scene follows, more Mr Davies shouting and being a bad-tempered prat.  
At end of scene, eleven girls enter stage as Mr Davies leaves.  
Benjamin- look out lads, here’s our chance!  
Benjamin walks up to Rachael.  
Benjamin awkwardly- Um hello, I’m Ben  
Rachael smiling slightly- Rachael  
Benjamin- You have lovely um breasts. No no! Your nose it’s perfect.  
Rachael completely dumbfounded- Um thank you?  
Other ten boys catch on and start flirting with the girls  
Reggie- Hey Artie, you were really good today  
Artie laughing- Thanks Reg, so you’ve been learning how to dance have you, what ballet or Charleston?   
Reggie- You’ve got beautiful um feet; they look great in your boots.  
Artie- Are you trying to compliment me?  
Reggie smiling foolishly- Um maybe?  
Artie smiles at him.  
The other eleven boys who had been standing at the back of the stage realise that they are trying to get the attention of the girls and decide to give it a go themselves.  
Boy 2- Hi Emma, you’ve got lovely hair.  
George- Leave her alone! She doesn’t want to talk to you!  
Boy 2 somewhat threateningly- Says who?  
George equally threateningly- Says me!  
Many fights break out around the stage, and there are soon eleven pairs of boys fighting each other about the girls.  
All the girls but Artie leave the stage as they fight.  
Benjamin stops fighting his partner and realises that the girls have left  
Benjamin getting up- Where’d they go?  
Artie nonchalantly- I don’t know what you’re talking about  
George also getting up- The girls, where did the girls go?  
Artie- Or they left, surprisingly they didn’t like you lot fighting over them  
Reggie enthusiastically as he walks over to her- But you’re still here!  
Tries to put an arm around her waist.  
Artie pushing him away - Leave off!  
Artie- Look I don’t like being fought over either Reg, I’m only still here because it was to hilarious to miss watching you idiots rolling around on the floor wrestling each other  
George- Well that went well  
Scene change- Mr Mitchell stands at the front of a Latin class, twelve of the boys look bored and unimpressed, Adam takes notes keenly.  
Mr Mitchell- Right today I’m going to tell you all about The Rape of the Sabine Women from Plutarch  
Loud groaning from Michael, Benjamin, George, Reggie and other eight main boys, Anthony looks overjoyed.  
Mr Mitchell- Another approach perhaps. Well here goes nothing.  
Mr Mitchell gains interest of the class by singing about the Sobin Women. The other boys apart from Anthony join in enthusiastically.  
Mr Mitchell dances off the stage at the end of the song, and Anthony leaves the stage after him with his book.  
Michael- So how did it work for the Romans?  
George- They just took what they wanted  
Reggie- And screw the consequences!  
The others murmur in assent.  
Michael- I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that. See you guys later!  
Reggie, George, Benjamin and other eight main boys, track down Artie, Rachael, Emma and eight other girls in the girls Common Room.  
Benjamin- Well hello ladies!  
Emma- Are you going to try fighting over us again?  
The boys all walk over to their girls.  
George- Well, we’ve tried war.  
Reggie- So we thought we’d try love!  
The boys hold their girls close, and try kissing them.  
The boys all get slapped across the face.  
Rachael- You lot must be crazy if you think we’d ever want to go out with any of you.  
The girls all rush off the stage, leaving the boys dejected and confused.  
Benjamin- What did we do wrong that time?  
Jane comes on the stage looking thoroughly disappointed. Michael follows her laughing after hearing about the boys all getting slapped.  
Jane- I hear you lot have been fighting?  
George foolishly- Maybe  
Jane- And trying to force yourselves on the girls?  
Reggie- Artie hit me across the face! She’s got a mean right hook!  
Jane shaking her head- She wouldn’t have hit you if you’d asked before you tried kissing her!  
Michael- Don’t any of you lot remember the golden rule?  
All main boys- No  
Jane and Michael whilst demonstrating- Dancing!  
The boys nod their heads in realisation.  
George- But It’s too late for that! They hate us!  
Michael- They don’t hate you!  
Jane- And you’re in luck, the school dance is tonight.  
Scene change- Adam is sitting alone in the Common Room reading, on the other side of Common Room Diana is also reading alone.  
Adam- Stupid school dance, just a chance for them all to show off  
Diana still reading- I know what you mean, I like dancing but not in front of loads of people  
Adam looks up from his book- What’s your name?  
Diana also looks up from her book- Diana.  
Adam gets up and puts a record on the record player. He then walks over to Diana.  
Adam- Well seeing as there’s no one else here? May I have this dance?  
Diana smiles at him and Adam turns on the record- Diana by Paul Anka plays. Adam and Diana dance around the common room not particularly elegantly, but its cute.  
Adam- Tell you what Diana, why don’t we go to the dance together.  
Diana seems slightly uncertain.  
Adam- We can just watch if you want?  
Diana smiles at him and they leave for the dance together.  
Scene change- the whole cast is on stage, mostly boys dancing with boys, Diana and Adam sit on the edge of stage watching, Michael and Jane dance together, the other eleven girls stand at the front of the stage looking agitated.  
Emma- Maybe we were too harsh with them earlier  
Rachael- Maybe they wont come  
Artie- Well if they don’t come we can always dance around our handbags!  
At this moment the eleven boys enter the stage and walk up to their girls. They each take their girls and start dancing at the front of the stage.  
Benjamin to Rachael- I’m sorry about earlier, I was acting stupid, but you’re so pretty!  
Rachael blushing- That’s ok  
George to Emma- My folks are taking me to cinema next weekend. Want to come with?  
Emma- I love the flicks!  
Reggie to Artie, melodramatically- Forgive me sweet lady, but Eros had struck his hero and I was hit, head over heels in love with you!  
Artie- Don’t be stupid, where’d you pick up lines like that?  
Reggie- Michael taught me  
Artie- Well ignore Michael, I like just regular Reg, not Reginald the poet!  
Show ends with the cast taking their bows to End Title from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.


	34. Chapter 34

24th December 1954,  
Dear Anthony,   
How are you?   
It’s bloody cold this year, so I’m having to write this with fingerless gloves on, I’m even having to crochet with the gloves on! I’m worried that if I take the gloves my hands will freeze!  
I think the main problem is, that the central heating broke a few days ago. It’s meant to be getting fixed today, but for now I’m just wearing two jumpers and extra warm tights.  
Yesterday was amazing, Celia took me and Julie up to London and we went shopping together. We went into a beautiful boutique where we had our bridesmaid dress fittings. The dresses our the palest of blues, and they shimmer like the sea when we walk. They are gorgeous, and now I can’t wait for the wedding in a few months!  
After that, she took us both for afternoon tea at Claridge’s before we got the train home. We both felt so grown up, and the tea was amazing! They had so many different types of tiny cakes!  
I’ve got to get changed in a few minutes; we’ve got to go to the Christmas Eve church service.  
I can’t wait to see you tomorrow, but you’ll probably get this letter after you see me anyway.  
Love always, your Athene XXXXX  
Athene addressed the envelope before pulling on her coat hat and scarf to go and post the letter before she had to get ready for church.  
Even if she wanted to, she could hardly go to church wearing three jumpers. At least the church had proper heating!  
She kept her tights on and changed her jumpers and skirt into a dress and a cardigan before pulling her coat, hat, scarf and fingerless gloves back on.  
“You ready Athy?” called Uncle Davy up the stairs.  
“Coming!” called Athene as she ran down the stairs pulling on her shoes.  
Uncle Davy was wearing his best uniform with his great coat over the top.  
They walked into town and sat through the church service. Athene got all her favourite carols, even Hark the Herald Angels Sing.  
Athene was still singing as they got home.  
“Hark the Herald Angels Sing! Glory to the new born King!”  
“Go on get to bed,” chuckled Captain Llewelyn, “or you’ll be half asleep at the Pennington’s tomorrow!”  
“Goodnight Uncle Davy!” she beamed before rushing off to bed.  
The next morning Athene got up early to pack up all the Christmas treats for the Pennington’s. she had been baking for the last week, there was her Granny’s famous Welsh cakes and Mince pies, she had even made some blackcurrant jam tarts for Anthony.  
As it was still cold outside, she was wearing her green jumper from last Christmas with navy skirt and woolly tights. She was also wearing the matching hat scarf and gloves from last Christmas with her coat.  
Uncle Davy helped Athene load all the presents into the car, as it was just under an hour to the Pennington’s.  
“Can you believe that it was just last year when you and Morgan were playing rugby in the snow?”  
“With the weather we’ve got, I’m surprised that it hasn’t started snowing again!” laughed Athene.  
Instead of snowing this year, there seemed to be a kind of miserable cold rain. Athene just didn’t care though! Rain wasn’t going to pull down her mood today!  
Everyone was coming around to the Pennington’s that day, the Fforbes Hamiltons were coming with Julie, and Celia was coming with her parents as well. It was going to be the first Christmas with no rationing whatsoever and they were going to party!  
Anthony came running out of the house not even having pulled on his coat as they pulled up in front of the house.  
“Athene!” he exclaimed rushing out of the house and pulling her in for a kiss.  
“Merry Christmas!” laughed Athene as they hugged each other.  
“Come on Athene, we’re all waiting for you!”  
Anthony helped Captain Llewelyn bring in all the presents and Athene carried in the cake tins which she put in the kitchen.  
“Morning Mrs Brown,” beamed Athene.  
“It smells delicious in here,” she said sniffing in the wonderful scents.  
“Can I smell a turkey?” she exclaimed.  
“And stuffing, and gravy, and roast potatoes, and chipolatas.”  
Athene’s face lit up at the sound of such a feast.  
“Well we deserve a decent Christmas after fourteen years of food rationing.”  
“You are far too right,” said Mark pinching a mince pie out of one of Athene’s ties.  
“Hey,” she yelled slapping his hand away.  
“At least wait until after lunch.”  
“Sorry,” muffled Mark with half a mince pie in his mouth, “they just look so good!”  
“Why do we have to wait until after lunch for presents?” sulked Mark.  
“Everyone’s here now,” sighed Mrs Brown, “you can wait another half an hour for lunch!”  
Athene helped with the finishing of the lunch whilst Anthony, Mark and Julie set the table for lunch.  
“Do I see Christmas crackers?” asked Athene as she looked at the table.  
“I thought they were a myth!”  
Athene had never even seen a Christmas cracker in real life.  
“Paper party hats, bad jokes and plastic toys,” beamed Nick, “everything you’ve ever been told is true.”  
Athene’s face lit up like a set of fairy lights, this might truly be her best ever Christmas ever.  
The fourteen of them sat down for lunch, and everyone ate far too much, but they still all seemed to have space for Christmas pudding afterwards.  
Athene got a pink paper hat in her cracker and a tiny sewing kit.  
“Did I hear you saying you’d brought some of your Granny’s famous Welsh cakes earlier?” asked Simon.  
“Well they’re her recipe,” admitted Athene, “but they’re not traditional Christmas food.”  
“I don’t care,” said Simon, “those cakes are legendary!”  
“Oh Simon’s told us about those!” said Mr Bell.  
“Apparently they’re so good that your Welsh sports master has started being able to smell them out!” laughed Mrs Bell.  
“And they’re better than his own Mam’s,” finished Celia.  
“Oh alright then,” said Athene shaking her head and passing around the tin of cakes.  
“These are amazing,” said Anthony through a mouthful of cake.  
“You’ve had them before,” laughed Athene.  
“No I’ve had the one’s your Granny made before, not made by your own fair hand.”  
“They’re alright?” she stammered. She had never actually tried the recipe before.  
“They’re perfect,” nodded Mrs Brown.  
Captain Llewelyn took a particularly large cake out of the tin and bit down.  
“Oh dear God,” he muttered closing his eyes in near ecstasy.  
“Athene they’re perfect it’s like she made them herself. I never thought I was going to taste Gladys’ Welsh cakes ever again. But they’re perfect!”  
Athene was close to tears as she gave her uncle a hug.  
“Who wants presents?” asked Mr Pennington once they had all eaten their fill.  
“Me!” yelled Mark and Julie leaping up from table before anyone could stop them.  
Everyone went through to the sitting room where there was mountains of presents waiting to be opened.  
Mr and Mrs Bell started off by passing Julie and Athene a present each. The two boxes were identical.  
“Together?” asked Julie.  
Athene nodded and they both ripped off the paper and found a shoe box. They had each been given a pair of light blue high heeled shoes to wear with their bridesmaid dresses.  
“Oh they’re gorgeous!” said Athene taking one of the shoes out of the box.  
“Thank you!”

“All girls like shoes,” beamed Mrs Bell.  
Julie was handed two huge boxes by her parents, she had opened all her small presents earlier, but these were the big ones.  
The larger box contained a pure white tutu, the skirts stuck up even when Julie wasn’t wearing it. She had been expecting this, but the other box she didn’t know what was in there.  
It was a long flowing dress with short sleeves, it was navy blue with the occasional silver sparkle. Athene could tell that once she put it on it would fall all the way to Julie’s feet. Julie had her first ever grown up evening gown.  
“Oh Mummy!” she exclaimed, “Daddy! It’s perfect!”  
“You’re welcome Juliet,” said Mrs Fforbes Hamilton.  
“Now we’ve just got to find you something to wear it for,” said Mr Fforbes Hamilton.  
All the four Pennington boys were handed large rectangular boxes.  
“If there hadn’t been clothes rationing Simon and Nick should have had these years ago,” admitted Mr Pennington as the boys unwrapped them.  
Inside the four boxes were tuxedos.  
“I’m not going to have you lot just wearing your best suits at the wedding in a few months.”  
Nick seemed to be thoroughly impressed, and Anthony didn’t seem to care either way.  
“Wow Dad!” beamed Mark.  
“Can I wear this for shows?”  
“I don’t care what you wear it for Mark,” chuckled Mr Pennington, “as long as you keep it in good condition and wear it for Simon and Celia’s wedding.”  
“Look out world,” muttered Nick, “Fred and Ginger have got proper evening dress now!”  
Uncle Davy had given Athene some new clothes for Christmas, including a light pink cashmere jumper.  
Mr Pennington handed Athene and Anthony two book shaped parcels. He was holding one in each hand, and seemed confused for a few seconds about who to give each one, before smiling and handing them both their presents.  
Anthony beamed and ripped off the paper.  
“The Fellowship of the Ring, and The Two Towers,” muttered Anthony looking at the books.  
“Tolkien!” he beamed his eyes lighting up like stars.  
“Thanks Dad!” he beamed giving his Dad a hug.  
Athene opened her present and found several small volumes.  
Ovid’s Fasti, Heroides, Metamorphoses and Amores.  
“Anthony told me that you have both taken an interest in Ovid,” he explained.  
“You’ll have to ask Mr Mitchell what they’re about,” said Mr Pennington, “I’m afraid I was never great shakes at Classics.”  
Then the children all exchanged gifts.  
There was a joint gift from Julie and Celia. She now not only had a light pink lipstick, but also blusher, mascara, eyeshadow and concealer.  
Athene and Anthony then passed each other their gifts.  
Anthony had been playing with his camera again, as well as the usual photographs of them and their friends there was also a blown-up photograph that Mr Mitchell had taken. Athene and Anthony were dancing together on the stage at the Christmas entertainment.  
Anthony then opened the light squashy parcel which Athene had passed to him.  
He unfolded the parcel and found the grey blue jumper that Athene had laboured over for months.  
“Athene!” breathed Anthony.  
“I thought you were making this for yourself, you worked so hard on it!”  
“If I was making it for myself, how come it’s four sizes too big for me?”  
“Well go on Tony,” said Simon, “see if it fits.”  
Anthony pulled on the jumper, and it fit perfectly.  
“That’s amazing,” said Mrs Bell looking at the stitching, “and this ribbed!”  
Even after presents, the celebration wasn’t over!  
They sang Christmas carols around the piano, as Anthony accompanied them until their voices gave out.  
When they looked back, in years to come Anthony and Athene could safely say, they could never remember such a perfect Christmas.


	35. Chapter 35

Athene was standing in her attic bedroom at the Pennington’s spinning around in front of the mirror. She was wearing her bridesmaid dress which span out as she twirled. The dress was a very pale blue, and she was wearing it over the underskirt that Celia had given her last summer.

As she was spinning there was a knock on the door, she stopped twirling as she was getting a bit dizzy anyway.

“Are you decent?” asked Anthony knocking on the door again.

“Come in Tony!” laughed Athene.

“Wow,” breathed Anthony as he looked at his girlfriend.

Anthony himself was wearing his new tuxedo, as he was quite tall for his age and was wearing his new suit, he looked closer to seventeen than fourteen and a half. The dark suit made his dark hair and deep blue eyes somehow look even more handsome.

He had taken off his glasses to polish them and check that he wasn’t seeing things because unless he was much mistaken, his girlfriend had transformed into the beautiful goddess he always knew she was.

“You look, you look,” he stammered.

“Thanks, Anthony,” laughed Athene getting the gist of it.

“Have I got this tied right?” asked Anthony pulling at his bowtie.

Anthony had somehow always had trouble with ties, he had figured out how to tie his school tie properly, but a bowtie was another matter entirely.

“It’s fine,” she said shaking her head, “can you get my sash?”

Athene turned around so her back was facing him, and he tied the silk sash on her dress.

“How is it?” she muttered as she pulled on her shoes.

“That even when I’m wearing a pair of high heels, you’re still a foot taller than me?”

“Genetics?” shrugged Anthony.

“Come on,” she sighed as they headed down from the attic, “or we’ll be late!”

Simon was pacing frantically in the hallway downstairs, muttering to himself. To be honest he looked more like Anthony than his usual easy and confident self. This was clearly a terrible case of wedding day nerves.

“What is she’s not there? Maybe she’s changed her mind!”

“Oh dear god!” he exclaimed, “what if there’s an accident on the way to the church!”

“Simon,” said Nick calmly straightening his brother's jacket and putting a flower in his buttonhole.

“You have got nothing to worry about. Cels loves you, and it’s only five minutes from the Bell’s to the church.”

“But what if?”

“If anything happens, we’ll deal with it,” assured Nick, “but as for now, just calm down and don’t worry. Everything’s going to be fine!”

Simon looked slightly uncertain, but they all got in the car all the same and drove to the church. They had had to arrive early, as Mark and Anthony were ushers and were showing people to their seats.

There were slightly under a hundred people coming to the wedding, but that was still quite a lot. It was being held at the local church, as they were both from the village.

Mr Pennington went to go sit in the front row with Mrs Brown whilst they waited for the guests to arrive. Captain Llewelyn had wanted to come to the wedding, but he had to work that day.

Simon was still pacing frantically muttering to himself, at the back of the church by the entrance.

“Nick,” said Mark carefully not wanting to upset Simon, “Simon’s going to have to move, he can’t see Celia before the ceremony!”

“Right, right,” nodded Nick shepherding Simon towards the front of the church away from the entrance.

Nick was the best man, and apart from looking after the rings, his main job was to stop Simon from panicking too much or getting too upset before the ceremony.

Julie arrived soon after and even though they were wearing the exact same outfit, Julie somehow seemed to look much more elegant in her dress than Athene.

Julie and Athene practised walking up and down the aisle out in the graveyard outside the church whilst the guests streamed in, and Mark and Anthony showed them to their seats.

Before long a car covered with ribbons pulled up by the church, and Celia got out of the car with her parents. Celia somehow looked even more sophisticated and beautiful than usual. Her shoulder-length blonde curls were covered by a lace veil, and her dress was made from a cream floral lace.

Mr Bell came running up the graveyard, as Mrs Bell adjusted Celia’s dress skirts having just gotten out of the car. He was carrying two bouquets of flowers.

“Here,” said Mr Bell breathlessly handing them both a bouquet of light blue flowers which matched their dresses. Celia had a larger bouquet of the same flowers.

“Do we look alright?” asked Julie spinning around.

“You look beautiful,” he beamed, “you both do.”

Mrs Bell gave her daughter one more hug before going to take her seat in the church.

Athene and Julie stood in front of Mr Bell and Celia at the back of the church.

There was muttering from throughout the church as the congregation waited for the service to start. Simon was as pale as a sheet, he looked almost like a ghost!

Mr Bell nodded to the organist, who started to play the processional music, and the congregation stood as one.

Julie and Athene started walking up the aisle slowly, followed a few metres behind by Celia and Mr Bell. As they walked, Nick nudged Simon slightly in the ribs and he turned around and looked to the back. The colour returned to Simon’s face almost instantly as he saw Celia walk towards him.

Athene and Julie sat down in the front row, next to Mark and Anthony as Celia stood next to Nick and Simon at the front of the church.

The ceremony was beautiful, Athene had never been to a wedding before, she had never known anyone who had gotten married.

After the wedding, they all gathered outside of the church for the photographs and then headed back to The Yews.

Whilst they had been at the service, the caterers had been setting up a marquee in the back garden of the house. As there were a hundred people coming to the reception there were about forty cars, and there was not enough space to park them all on the driveway. Therefore, Mr Pennington and Nick were having to direct all the guests to a spare field that they owned next to the house and helping them all park their cars.

Instead of having a wedding band, Mark and Simon had been fiddling with Mark’s record player for the last few days and had managed to wire it up to some new speakers that they had just gotten. The dancing wasn’t going to be until later, they had to get through the meal and the speeches first.

Athene was sitting at the main table next to Anthony, with Mark and Julie. After the main course and before the cake came the speeches.

Mr Pennington had a microphone which was wired up to the speakers.

“Testing testing one two three!”

“Are you receiving me?”

“Loud and clear Dad!” called Mark from further down the table.

“Well, we know the speakers work!” laughed Mr Pennington.

“First of all, I would like to thank you all for coming. And I would of course like to welcome young Celia to our family.”

“As many of you know, Charlotte and I were never blessed with a daughter, but I know that if Charlotte could be here, she would view Celia as a daughter, as I do.”

Celia blushed slightly as she and Simon beamed at Mr Pennington.

“Simon and Celia were both born in 1935,” he continued, “four years before the beginning of the war, a war that we only finished recovering from last year with the end of rationing.”

“Let’s put it this way, there’s been such a short supply of nearly everything since my children were born that one of them up until Christmas a few months back, thought that Christmas crackers were a myth!”

There was a smattering of laughter from the guests, and Anthony and Athene both blushed.

“Well I know you all want me to keep this short, so we can get on with the dancing. So, seeing as there is no longer rationing, bring out the cake!”

There was a round of applause as the caterers brought out a huge four-layered delicately iced wedding cake, covered with sugar flowers. On top of the cake were two figurines, the groom had short dark hair, and the bride had shoulder-length blonde curls.

Athene’s eyes popped open in amazement; she had never seen such a big cake! And it was so beautiful!

Simon and Celia held the cake knife between them and made the first cut from the first tier to applause from the guests again.

Athene had been so amazed by the cake, that she had completely forgotten about the dancing.

She tried dancing with Anthony in her high heels, but they kept on getting in the way. So eventually she pulled her shoes off and danced around with Anthony in her nylon tights.

At the end of the wedding, Simon and Celia headed off for their honeymoon in Rome and they all waved them off.

As they waved them away, Athene hoped that if she ever got married, her wedding would be half as wonderful as the one she just went to.


	36. Chapter 36

When they got back from the Easter holidays for some reason Lucy and Lizzie were leaping for joy in the third and fourth form Common Room.

They were practically dancing around the Common Room.

“What is going on?” asked Mark going into the Common Room.

“Well you guys know it’s VE Day soon right?” asked Lucy beaming.

“Well yeah,” said Julie as if nothing could have been more obvious.

The school had been getting ready for the VE Day celebrations since Christmas. The eighth of May, which was now less than a month away was going to be the ten-year anniversary of peace being declared in Europe. Anthony had been practising with the school orchestra songs such as Land of Hope and Glory and Rule Britannia, they were going to be playing for the celebrations. Julie had been picked to sing the solo at the start of God Save the Queen, and Harry and Charlie had been practising their drill even more enthusiastically than normal.

“Read this,” beamed Lizzie indicating a notice up on the board.

VE DAY PROGRAMME UPDATE- BEAUTY CONTEST FOR MISS BRITAIN- FIRST PRIZE FOR MOST PATRIOTIC COSTUME

“Are you guys entering?” asked Athene.

“Of course, we’re entering we probably won’t win, but it will be fun to enter!”

“Who’s it open to?” asked Julie.

“All girls in Upper Third and Fourth form.”

“So, are you guys entering?” asked Lucy.

“Well of course,” beamed Julie, “I’ve already got the perfect outfit!”

“I’d love to enter,” muttered Athene, “but I haven’t got anything to wear.”

“Poor Cinderella,” sighed Lucy, “can’t go to the ball as she has nothing to wear!”

“Well I’m not entering in the first place,” said Charlie, “it’s a glorified dog show!”

“Don’t worry Athene,” said Anthony putting his arm around her, “it’s not until next month.”

“You’re really good at sewing, you can make something in that time,” said Mark.

“I’ve got no material,” she muttered.

“Why don’t we go ring your Uncle, maybe we can sort something out?”

Athene beamed at him and Athene and Anthony went to go and find the phone.

“Um hello, can I please be put through to Captain David Llewelyn?”

“Thank you!”

“Hi Uncle Davy!”

“Hello, Captain Llewelyn!” called Anthony down the phone.

“They’ve got a Miss Britain contest next month, but I haven’t got anything to wear.”

“Yes, it’s for VE Day.”

“Could you send me some material for my costume?”

“Well, probably just plain red white and blue, I can figure it out.”

“What kind of deal?” she asked smirking.

“Well, I suppose they will have flags at the celebrations.”

“You want me to make a Welsh flag for VE Day?” she laughed.

“Well of course I will.”

“Uncle Davy you’re amazing!”

“Oh, and can you send my underskirt as well, I’ll probably be needing it?”

“Thanks Uncle Davy! I love you!”

“So what’s going on?” asked Anthony.

“He’s sending me the material, but he’s sending extra because he wants me to make a Welsh flag. There’s going to be British flags, and English flags and the Welsh people fought in the war too.”

“Of course, he is,” chuckled Anthony.

A few days later, a large parcel of fabrics arrived. Anthony, Julie and Mark helped her unpack them in the dorm. There were huge amounts of blue, red, white and green fabrics. He had also sent on her underskirt.

“Why has he sent green fabric?” asked Julie as they unpacked the parcel.

“Well a Welsh flag, the top half is white and the bottom half is green, and then you applique a red dragon on top.”

“What’s applique?” asked Mark.

“Sewing on top,” said Athene.

“What you going to wear Julie?” asked Anthony.

“Well the evening dress I got for Christmas is blue so that’s one of the three, with some red heels I’ll probably be fine.”

“Mark do you want to go practise our ballet?”

“Come on Julie,” said Mark getting out his ballet shoes.

Athene got out a sketchbook and some coloured pencils. She had to sketch out her costume before she got started. She sketched out a top half which was a corset with a Union Jack design and had very short sleeves. She had been sent extra red material to use for the skirt.

“I know I’m making the flag,” said Athene as she sketched, “but I want some of the costume to be Welsh. I’m thinking maybe I can embroider some Welsh stuff in black thread onto the skirt so it’s not as plain.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, dragons, daffodils.”

“Leeks?” suggested Anthony.

“Even I am not going to wear a leek dress!” laughed Athene.

Athene spent the next month sewing when she wasn’t studying. She had to make a full costume and a Welsh flag.

The night of the eighth of May came along and Athene was sat patiently on her bed. Julie had heated up her curling tongs, and all the girls were taking it in turns to have their hair curled, apart from Charlie who wasn’t competing. Harry and Charlie were polishing their boots for the next day and Mark was stretching his legs.

Julie had already curled all the other girl's hair but had left Athene’s to last.

“There’s just so much of it,” muttered Julie as she parted Athene’s hair.

“I know how much hair I have,” Athene laughed.

“Yeah but it’s usually in your plaits.”

“Why does her hair even have to be curled?” asked Anthony.

“I like it the way it already is,” beamed Anthony trying to lean in for a kiss.

“Mind the curling irons!” exclaimed Julie.

“Sorry,” chuckled Anthony sitting back down and getting his book back out.

“Our hair has to be curled,” explained Julie, “because it looks prettier.”

“And beauty is pain.”

“And tonight’s daily dose of pain,” said Mark, “is the possibility of getting burnt by the curlers.”

Finally, after Athene felt like she had been sat there for nearly two hours, her hair was properly curled.

The next day, Athene woke up early as usual and put the final touches to her costume. By the time the other girls woke up, Athene was embroidering the skirt on her dress. She was sitting on the bed in her pyjamas adding the last of her dragons to the dress.

She also had to add the final details to her dragon on the flag.

“You guys nervous?” asked Lucy.

“Just a bit,” muttered Athene as she cut the last thread.

“We’ve got a contest to win,” beamed Julie as she out her make up.

“What if one of the younger girls wins?” asked Charlie smirking.

“Yeah,” chuckled Lizzie, “like that’s going to happen!”

“If one of us does win though,” said Athene, “no grudges?”

“Agreed,” nodded Julie shaking her hand.

They did each other’s hair and make-up. Athene had silver eye shadow and a very light pink lipstick. As Athene’s hair was curled, it was significantly shorter than usual and Julie plaited her hair into a half up.

Then Athene pulled on her underskirt and her dress over the top. Then Charlie tied the ribbons on her corset.

Julie was wearing her midnight blue floor-length evening gown and looked very glamorous. Lucy and Lizzie were both wearing their best dresses over their underskirts, Lucy’s was blue with white polka dots and Lizzie’s was red and blue stripes.

By the time the girls got down to the hall having got ready, nearly the whole school was gathered, and the stage was already set up.

Anthony was waiting by the piano with the rest of the school orchestra, and Mark was doing a microphone check on the stage.

“Anthony can you look after this for me?” asked Athene passing him her flag.

“Sure,” he beamed.

“Good luck!” he beamed giving her a quick kiss in the cheek before she ran off backstage.

Mr Mitchell gave Mr Wells the thumbs up, and Mr Wells came up onto the stage.

He walked over to the microphone and addressed the school

“I know it’s the weather we might have hoped for,” said Mr Wells, “it’s chucking it down with rain. But it’s still VE Day so the weather’s not going to stop us from celebrating!”

“We are going to start off the events this afternoon with the Miss Britain competition.”

“Are we ready judges?”

The head boy and the teachers on the judging committee nodded that they were ready.

“We ready ladies?”

“Yes sir!” called one of the Third formers.

“Right take it away, Mark.”

Mark was wearing his tuxedo again and came up to the microphone.

“Good afternoon everyone and happy VE Day, first up, we’ve got the St Christopher’s Miss Britain competition, the girls have been getting ready all month, and the big day has finally arrived.”

“Are we ready girls?”

“Oh just get on with it Mark!” shouted Mr Davies at the top of his lungs.

When people turned to look at him though he acted like he hadn’t said anything at all.

“Maestro!” said Mark beckoning to Anthony.

Anthony nodded and began to play Irving Berlin’s A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody on the piano.

Mark sang the chorus as the girls walked onto the stage.

“A pretty girl is like a melody that haunts you night and day,  
Just like the strain of a haunting refrain,  
She’ll start up-on a marathon  
And run around your brain.  
You can’t escape she’s in your memory.  
By morning night and noon.  
She will leave you and then come back again,  
A pretty girl is just like a pretty tune.”

A couple of the girls nearly tripped on the way onto the stage because of their high heels, one of the Lower Fourth nearly stumbled into Lucy because she had taken off her glasses.

“And here we are,” beamed Mark, “our dozen beautiful goddesses, but of course the question is which one shall be our Miss Britain?”

Mark interviewed each of the girls, and then they gave twirl for the judges in their dresses.

“Hello, would you care to tell the audience your name and age and a bit about yourself?”

Julie gave him a meaningful look as the audience sniggered.

“My name is Juliet Fforbes Hamilton, but my friends call me Julie. I’m fifteen years old, and I’m from West Sussex. My hobbies are dancing and acting. My favourite film stars are Grace Kelly and of course Ginger Rogers.”

“Thank you, Julie,” beamed Mark.

Julie gave a spin in her dress before going back to join the other girls.

“Could you please tell me something about yourself?”

Athene’s face lit up with laughter.

“Hello, my name is Athene Ruth Richards. I’ll be fifteen next month, and I’m from Pembrokeshire in Wales. I love to read, my favourite subjects as Latin, French and English Literature. And I enjoy sewing and crochet.”

“Did you make this dress yourself?”

“Yes, yes I did,” she beamed.

“May I ask why there are dragons embroidered on your skirt?”

“They are a Welsh symbol, and I am very proud to be Welsh.”

“Thank you, Athene,” said Mark.

Athene span around in her dress at the front of the stage before rejoining the other girls.

Once Mark had interviewed all the other girls then they walked in front of the stage one more time before the prize was awarded.

Mr Wells handed Mark an envelope.

“And we have a winner!” exclaimed Mark as he opened the envelope.

“In second place, Juliet Fforbes Hamilton.”

Julie looked slightly surprised that she hadn’t won the contest. But she was still smiling, hopefully, one of her friends had won.

“And in first place.”

“The judges would like to explain their decision before I announce it. The reason they have picked this person is that she has the best costume. If this was a beauty contest, we may have had another winner. But the prize is for the most patriotic costume. Therefore, the indisputable winner is.”

“Drumroll please!”

“Athene Richards!”

Athene’s face was wide open in shock, she couldn’t believe that she’d actually won!

“Congratulations Athene!”

Mark handed her, her trophy and a bouquet of red white and blue flowers, as Julie helped Athene on with her winners’ sash.

“Well done Athene!” beamed Julie giving her a hug.

“You spent a month on this costume, you deserve this,” agreed Lizzie.

Anthony helped Athene down off of the stage and lifted her in the air.

“You were fantastic!” he beamed.

“You’ll always be the most beautiful to me!”


	37. Chapter 37

20th July, 1955,

Dear Athene,

How are you?

I hope you and your Uncle David are having a nice holiday.

I’ve hardly seen Mark and Julie all month. They’ve been to the cinema nearly every day watching their favourite film stars. I think they’re trying to make up for all the shows they can’t go and see over the school year.

Nick got his exam results a few days ago, unsurprisingly hes passed all his A Levels with flying colours, as we all knew he would.

Mrs Brown has started acting a bit strange. She’s probably just tired, she’s got to be seventy if she’s a day.

Simon and Celia arrived yesterday evening and are going to be staying for a month. They’re all settled into their new flat and Simon loves his new job. Simon’s going to be commuting into work with Dad every few days, but Celia is going to stay here.

They should still be here when you come in a few weeks and Cels is looking forward to seeing you.

I’ve started reading Vergil’s Aeneid, not in the original Latin of course, but it’s still good. My favourite part of the day though is writing to you. It’s the first thing I do after getting up in the morning. And when I walk the fifteen minutes down to the village, come rain or shine, I always think of you and wonder what you’re getting up to.

Love always, your Anthony.

“Tony!” called Nick out in the corridor.

“Hmmm,” muttered Anthony looking up from writing the address.

“Breakfast,” he said poking his head around the door.

“I’m coming,” muttered Anthony hopping down from his usual shelf in the linen cupboard.

“I know I’ve asked you this fifty times,” sighed Nick as they went downstairs.

“But why the linen cupboard?”

“It’s quiet, I get left alone, and it’s surprisingly comfortable.”

“Suit yourself little brother,” chuckled Nick ruffling his brother’s hair. This was difficult, as now Anthony and Mark were taller than Nick.

Whereas Nick and Simon had stopped growing at six-foot, Mark and Anthony were still growing!

“You can’t call him little brother anymore,” chuckled Mark, “for although he might be younger than you, he’s taller.”

“If anyone’s the little brother now its you Nick,” chortled Simon.

“Boys!” muttered Mr Pennington exasperatedly.

Even though his sons were grown up, Simon was nearly twenty, and Nick had just turned eighteen, this hadn’t stopped any of them from arguing.

Anthony sat down next to Celia at the breakfast table and tucked in eagerly to his breakfast. 

Anthony had a fairly rigid routine, wake up, get up, write to Athene, have breakfast, walk to post office, study until lunch, lunch, piano practise, read, dinner, spend time with family, read, bed.

Anthony noticed that Celia was just pushing her own breakfast around her plate, which was strange as Celia had never been one to waste food.

Mrs Brown was also looking particularly old today, she had huge shadows under her eyes like she hadn’t slept well. She also seemed to look thoroughly miserable about something.

Anthony looked around the table and noticed that none of the others had noticed that anything was wrong with either Mrs Brown or Celia, apart from Simon that is.

“Eat up Cels,” he said gently, “you’ve got to keep your strength up.”

“I’m not hungry,” she muttered quietly, “maybe I’ll eat something later.”

“Is there something up?” asked Anthony looking at Celia and Simon nervously.

“We’re going to have to tell them at some point,” muttered Celia.

Simon nodded slightly, and Simon coughed his throat to get everyone’s attention.

“Hem hem!” he coughed.

“Cels and I have an announcement to make,” said Simon.

They both beamed at each other.

“We’re going to have a baby!” said Celia her face lighting up.

Mark spat out the orange juice he was halfway through drinking, and nearly choked.

Mr Pennington had to pat Mark on his back to stop him from choking too badly.

“What was that Si?” asked Nick checking he hadn’t misheard things.

“We’re going to be having a baby,” said Simon.

“That’s why I’m not eating my breakfast Anthony,” Celia explained, “morning sickness.”

“We were going to wait to tell you all until Athene got here,” said Simon, “she’s basically part of the family after all.”

“When are you expecting?” asked Mrs Brown.

“Late December or early January.”

“Did you two do some messing around before the wedding?” asked Mark grinning mischievously.

Nick gave his brother a firm jab in the ribs, and Mark grimaced.

“Have you never heard of a honeymoon baby you idiot!” spat Nick.

“Sorry,” said Mark massaging his stomach slightly.

“It’s ok Marky,” chuckled Simon.

“Whilst we’re talking about news, I have some big news myself,” said Mrs Brown.

She looked thoroughly miserable, and had the air of someone who wanted to get the worst over with.

“This is going to be my last Summer with you.”

“What?” stammered Mark.

There was a ringing clang as Anthony dropped the knife he had been using to cut his toast.

Mr Pennington nodded, he and Mrs Brown had already discussed all this.

“I’m going to be seventy next May, and I will be retiring then, I’ll still be here for next Christmas and Easter, but by next Summer Mr Pennington will have found a replacement.”

“You’re leaving!” exclaimed Nick.

“But you can’t leave!” protested Simon.

“Hell, you’ve been with this family longer than I have!” 

It was true, Mrs Brown had been hired to help Mrs Pennington with the housework when she was pregnant with Simon. It was a big house, and their mother had been worried that she would be able to do all the cooking and the cleaning and look after a baby, so they had hired a housekeeper. This had been just over twenty years ago.

Anthony’s mouth was still hanging open slightly as he listened to all this. Simon and Celia expecting a baby was big news in itself, but that on top of Mrs Brown retiring! So much had changed just during the course of breakfast.

As Anthony headed down to the village to the post office, Anthony realised that Athene’s letter for tomorrow had already written itself, and it wasn’t even nine o’clock yet!


	38. Chapter 38

It was a rainy day, and Simon and Mr Pennington were in London again showing Nick around the publishing company. Mark and Julie were at the cinema, and Athene, Anthony and Celia were up in the attic.

They could hear the rain pelting down on the roof outside, so it was more than slightly comforting to hear the rain rather than being out in it.

Anthony was flicking through his books, they had finished reading the Ovid now, but Anthony now really wanted to introduce Athene to Tolkien properly. He was planning on reading her the fellowship of the ring.

Athene and Celia were both relaxing on top of the bed with extra jumpers on, so they didn’t get cold. Athene was propped up on her arms, and Celia was leaning her back against the pillows.

“I still can’t believe you’re pregnant Celia!” said Athene beaming at her.

“You know some days neither can I,” laughed Celia, “but then I get the morning sickness again!”

“Do you know how many kids you want?”

“Well we haven’t had this first one yet,” laughed Celia, “but um three, maybe four?”

“Do you want a girl or a boy?” asked Anthony as he joined them on the bed.

“I don’t know, I don’t really mind,” she shrugged.

“But a little girl would be nice,” she whispered.

“Don’t tell Simon, he wants a son!”

“You’ll be great which ever one it is,” said Athene.

“So the big question is though,” said Celia looking between Athene and Anthony.

“Do you two ever want kids?”

“I mean you know, you two have been together for nearly a year.”

Anthony and Athene looked at each other, they both looked terrified! They were only fourteen, the very idea of being parents was terrifying!

“I’m only joking,” laughed Celia, “you’re just kids.”

“Mummy’s really looking forward to going shopping for the baby,” said Celia.

“We’re going to go around Harrods together and pick everything out.”

“We need all sorts, a changing table, a cradle, a rocking chair.”

“Sound’s amazing!” said Athene.

“We’ve got plenty of space at the flat, and the babies going to go in the room next to ours.”

“You going to have theme?”

“A theme?” asked Athene incredulously.

“Oh yes, all nurseries have to have a theme,” nodded Anthony.

“Mine was pretty and pink,” beamed Celia, “they waited till I arrived to decorate. Everything was lacy and pink.”

“What about you Anthony?”

“Nursery rhymes,” said Anthony, “well it was Simon’s nursery originally.”

“It had a Mother Goose frieze all along the top of the wall, and framed illustrations of things like Jack and Jill.”

“Didn’t you have a theme?” asked Anthony.

“No,” laughed Athene, “I was born two years into the war! Most of my stuff was second hand, Dad was happy just to get a tin of yellow paint to paint my room!”

“So what themes are there?” asked Athene.

“We want something that could suit a girl or a boy,” added Anthony.

“Um, well there’s nursery rhymes,” said Celia.

“Beatrix Potter,” said Anthony.

“Julie had Peter Rabbit and it was adorable!” he added.

“Peter Rabbit!” laughed Athene.

“Next thing you’re going to be telling me that people have Winnie the Pooh nurseries!”

Anthony and Celia looked at each other with interest.

“Actually, that could work,” said Anthony.

“We could have all the little toys!” beamed Celia.

“Piglet and Pooh and Eyeore.”

“I’ve got to go write all this down,” she exclaimed getting up and leaving the room.

Athene checked that Celia had left properly and the door was shut. Anthony had gotten out The Fellowship on the Ring and was turning it to the first page.

“Anthony?”

“Hmm?” he muttered looking up from his book.

“I may not have had a fancy nursery like you lot, but I still remember something from when I was a baby.”

“Whats that?” he asked curiously.

He looked up and saw that Athene seemed to be riffling in the back of her wardrobe for something.

“Got it!” she beamed pulling out a small brightly coloured blanket. It was the right size to cover a single bed.

“It’s my baby blanket,” she explained, “it used to go in my cot, my Mum made it.”

Anthony looked at the striped blanket, it was made up of scrap wool as even wool had been in short supply when Athene had been on the way, so her Mum had used up all the spare wool they had left over from other projects. Because it was made of so many different colours though it was beautiful, dark greens and bright reds, light blue and deep purples.

“This is made of scrap wool?” asked Anthony impressed as he looked at the blanket.

“Hmm,” nodded Athene as she stroked the soft blanket.

“This looks different from your stitches though,” he muttered as he inspected it.

“That’s because my Mum used to knit rather than crochet.”

“Come with me,” Anthony beamed.

Anthony pulled a very confused Athene down to the kitchen with him.

“Hello Mrs Brown!” beamed Anthony.

Mrs Brown was sat at the kitchen table chopping potatoes for a shepherd’s pie.

“Anthony,” she sighed, “as you can see, dinner is not for several hours! If you want something to eat you’ll have to make do with an apple.”

“Oh no its not that,” laughed Anthony.

“Didn’t Mum used to have a huge stash of spare wool?”

“Well yes,” admitted Mrs Brown, “I’ve never been much at wool work myself, but I sometimes use it for darning holes.”

“Do you mind if we use some of it?” asked Anthony.

“Feel free, but there’s not enough of any one colour to make anything.”

“Don’t worry,” beamed Anthony, “that’s exactly what we need!”

“It’s in a box in the attic,” said Mrs Brown shaking her head.

“Thanks,” he beamed before rushing back out of the room.

“Anthony!” called Athene as she ran back up the stairs after him, “what is going on!”

“Well, you want to make a blanket for Celia and Simon’s baby, right?”

“Yes,” she nodded as they went into the other attic room.

There were three rooms in the attic, Athene’s bedroom, the bathroom, and the largest room which was usually used for storage and Mark and Julie used for tap practise. It was full of cardboard boxes, and old trunks full of clothes, stacks of old books and discarded manuscripts. There was a large open space in the middle of the room, and Mark’s grammar phone was next to it, this was clearly where Mark and Julie did their tap dancing.

“Well the one you’ve got is beautiful and it’s made from scrap wool.”

“But there isn’t a shortage of wool anymore,” said Athene, “we can go down to the shop in town and buy as much wool as we like.”

“Yes,” admitted Anthony as he riffled through various boxes, “but it wouldn’t be as pretty!”

“Ah!” he exclaimed finding a huge cardboard box, “here we are!”

Athene looked in the box and found dozens of half used balls of wool in various colours, there had to be every colour in the rainbow in this box.

“Are you sure I can use these?” asked Athene.

“I mean they were your Mums.”

“Athens,” chuckled Anthony, “they’ve been up in this attic for ten years gathering dust, Mum would want the wool to be used.”

They carried the box back through to Athene’s room, and Athene went through the wool whilst Anthony got his book back out.  
“Do we want granny squares or stripes?” she asked.

“The stripes are gorgeous, but I like the stitch on your granny squares.”

“Well then in that case I’ll make a granny stripe blanket,” she beamed.

“You ready to learn the difference between a hobbit and a dwarf?” asked Anthony.

“If I must,” said Athene grudgingly as she picked out some red wool and started to cast on stitches with her crochet hook.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want!” said Anthony quickly, “we can read something else!”

“Anthony,” she giggled, “I was kidding, tell me all about the miraculous world of Tolkien.”

Anthony beamed at her as they both got comfortable.

“I love you Athene Richards.”

“I know you do,” she said simply as she stitched.


	39. Chapter 39

On the first morning back at school Athene noticed quite how many girls there were actually at St Christopher’s. Seven new girls had joined the Upper Third that year, which meant that there was now twenty girls in the whole school.

Yes they were still outnumbered twenty to one by the boys, but as Charlie said, they finally had enough girls to form a full fifteen rugby team with a few reserves.

Athene took her usual seat in assembly next to Anthony and noticed that there were several changes on the teachers podium, a few of the teachers had left, and there was some new teachers who she had never seen before.

The school sang the opening hymn Guide Me O My Great Redeemer, and then Mr Mitchell came up to the front of the stage.

“Good morning school, welcome back.”

“As I am sure some of you will have noticed, there have been some staff changes. Mr Thomas are head of English and one of our housemasters has retired, Mr Davies has agreed to take over his house duties though.”

There was a fair amount of grumbling from Mr Davies’ new house. Mr Thomas had been a bit of an old softy, and let them get away with whatever they wanted, but they had a feeling that Mr Davies wouldn’t let them get away with quite so much. It wasn’t that Mr Davies wasn’t nice, and he was always fair, but their midnight feasts might have to become a little bit less obvious.

“Mr Baker has therefore been promoted to Head of English. Mr Collins our Deputy Headmaster and Maths teacher has moved to America over the Summer having been offered a job at a new school, therefore I am to be the new Deputy Headmaster.” 

There was a loud round of applause from throughout the school, particularly Mr Mitchell’s own house.

“Well done Sir!” called Charlie.

Harry, Graham, Malcom and Rupert had started singing For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow!

“Yes yes thank you,” he muttered blushing slightly trying to get everyone to calm down.

“Harry Charlie sit down!” he said firmly.

Harry and Charlie sat down in their seats still beaming like mad.

“Thank you,” he sighed as everyone quietened down.

“Mr Jones is going to be our new History teacher, as of yet we have been able to find a replacement for Mr Thomas, therefore our English department is going to be a bit overrun until we can find a replacement, but all the staff are going to be doing their best to help with the situation.”

At this moment Mr Davies stood up and took over for a moment.

“If we’re going to be working extra hard, we expect you lot to be on your best behaviours! If any of you lot are acting up in Mr Baker’s or Miss Smith’s English classes, I’ve asked them to send you directly to me and I will deal with you personally.”

There was a collective sharp intake of breath around the hall, St Christopher’s was a fairly progressive school and not just because they took girls. Most of the staff didn’t use the cane on students, they preferred to set lines, but Mr Davies was a different matter. He didn’t use the cane often but if they deserved it, he wasn’t afraid to use it.

Mark sank back in his seat slightly at the mere thought of it. 

“Yes thank you Mr Davies,” said Mr Mitchell over the muttering as Mr Davies retook his seat.

“Now I am proud to introduce our new headmaster Mr Grainger.”

A shortish, slightly balding middle-aged man in a neat navy suit came up to the front of the stage. He seemed like a good natured and jolly man, but Anthony had a feeling that their new headmaster like Mr Mitchell could be strict when he needed to be.

“Good morning school,” he beamed.

“Good morning Sir,” said a few quiet voices from amongst the students.

“It must be Monday,” he chuckled, “you lot are still half asleep.”

“Either that or you’re still slightly dazed from listening to that long list of staff changes.”

“I have been a headmaster at a school before, but of course nothing like this one. I was at an all-boys school, it might take me a while to get used to you young ladies running around the school.”

“I hope we all get on very well, and I look forward to getting to know you all. Enjoy your first day back.”

“School dismissed,” said Mr Mitchell.

“I wonder what the new teachers are like?” wondered Julie as they left assembly.

“I think we’re about to find out,” said Anthony checking his schedule.

“We’ve got double Latin and double history this morning, and then rugby and double English after lunch.”

They all rushed to the classroom so that they weren’t going to be late.

The Lower Fifth Alpha class consisted of Mr Mitchell’s and Mr Davies’ students, and they were all waiting for Mr Mitchell when he came into the classroom.

Mr Mitchell entered the classroom to loud amounts of cheering and whistling and clapping. Mr Mitchell was beaming as he looked around at his students.

“You’ll be headmaster before you know it Sir!” called Harry.

“Yes well if I was your headmaster Harry, I would no longer be your Latin teacher. Speaking of which,” he said holding up a grammar textbook.

“Oh sir!” groaned Julie.

“Don’t you oh sir me Julie get you books out.”

“Unless of course, you lot already know everything and would like a test?”

There was a frantic scramble as everyone got out their grammar textbooks and exercise books.

“I thought that might work,” said Mr Mitchell smirking at Anthony and Athene who were sat at the front of the classroom as always waiting eagerly for him to start.

It turned out, that their new History teacher, Mr Jones, had only just graduated from university, so he wasn’t great at class control yet and was extremally nervous. He had to shout over the class to be heard because they kept on trying to talk amongst themselves.

Finally ten minutes into the lesson, Anthony had had enough of everyone’s messing around and stood up by his desk at the front of the classroom.

“Excuse me!” shouted Anthony clearly.

Thirty five eyes turned to look at him, Mark had frozen his hand in mid-air trying to throw a paper aeroplane. Harry was standing on his desk and looked like he was trying to throw a rugby ball.

Anthony didn’t get angry very often, he reserved his temper for important things. This did mean though that when he got angry, he was furious.

“I don’t know about you idiots!” said Anthony his voice full of anger, “but Athene and I are trying to learn, and we can’t hear Mr Jones over all you lot!”

“Not to mention the fact that I don’t think Mr Davies threat this morning just applied to English class, so unless you would all like to form a line outside Mr Davies’ office I think you should all sit down and shut up!”

There was a ringing silence as Anthony finished talking, before they all took their seats and got their textbooks out.

“Thank you,” mouthed Mr Jones to Anthony.

Anthony merely nodded as he straightened his glasses.

“Right you are going to be sitting your GCE O Exams in two years now, and today we are going to start studying the First World War.”

Harry put his hand in the air.

“Yes um?”

“Harry.”

Mr Jones nodded as if permission to continue.

“Why are we studying the First World War, that’s not History, that only happened forty years ago.”

“That is a good question, well History is anything can be that has happened in the past, for example yesterday’s events are now history.”

“The First World War is a very important event of more recent history in this country, which is why it will probably appear on the exam.”

“Does anyone know the causes of the First World War?”

Once the class settled down, Mr Jones was actually a very good teacher. He was a bit young and inexperienced but that was all just a matter of time, but he definitely knew his subject and made it interesting for the students.

After lunch came rugby which was just as excitable and muddy as usual. Anthony usually just stayed in the background and whenever he got passed the ball, he would get rid of it as fast as he could, so he didn’t get tackled. Athene, Harry and Charlie may enjoy rugby, but some of the boys were much bigger than him, and he wasn’t a very fast runner.

After practise, they all went inside for a quick shower before English that afternoon.

“I wonder who we’re going to get for English this year?” asked Charlie as the girls headed from the changing rooms to the English classroom.

“Well it could be the gingerbread man,” beamed Charlie.

Mr Baker like most of the other staff had a nickname, Mr Davies was the dragon, Mr Mitchell was Old Mitch, Mr Baker was called the gingerbread man because of his last name and his bright red hair.

“Miss Smith’s nice,” said Julie, “she lets us put on plays!”

“We’ve got our GCE O’s next year Julie,” muttered Athene, “play times over.”

“Literally,” chuckled Mark as they joined the girls.

When the class to the classroom though neither Mr Baker or Miss Smith were there. In fact, there wasn’t any teacher there.

The students shrugged and took their seats, but by the time that the teacher hadn’t arrived after ten minutes they were starting to get fed up.

Anthony and Athene had started their History homework, and Mark and Harry were standing up in front of the rest of class conducting them as they all sang.

“Why are we waiting! Why are we waiting! Why are we waiting, O why, why o why!”  
At this point however the teacher finally arrived, and it was none other than the new headmaster Mr Grainger himself.

“O Come let us adore him,” stammered Mark, and the rest of the class caught on.

“O Come let us adore him! O come let us adore him Christ the lord!”

“Good afternoon Sir,” said Mark smiling innocently.

“We’ve been practising our Christmas carols,” said Harry.

“Yes I know,” said Mr Grainger, “I’m pretty sure half the school could hear you. It’s three months until Christmas, and that’s not what you were singing.”

Anthony was having to bite his lip to stop himself from laughing as he and Athene put away their History homework.

“Your names are?”

Mark gulped slightly.

“Mark Pennington.”

“Harry Knowles.”

“You wouldn’t be the same Mark and Harry that Mr Jones mentioned were causing chaos in his class this morning?”

Mark and Harry both looked at each other terrified.

“I’ll see you in my office after class, now take your seats!”

“Yes Sir,” said Mark and Harry scampering frantically to their seats.

“As you were told this morning, there is a staff shortage in the English department. This means that your form, Lower Fourth Beta, and the Lower Sixth get the pleasure of my company as an English teacher.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know any of your names, so if you could all sit in the same desks for this term and I can draw up a seating chart.”

Mr Grainger went through the register and jotted everyone’s names down on his chart before getting a number of books out of his bag. There was about six paperback books which he held up.

“These are the books that we will be studying for the next two years, these will come up on your exams next year.”

“Some of these books are extremally current. Lord of the Flies, Animal Farm and An Inspector Calls.”

“We saw that!” said Harry.

“In the Cinema last year,” agreed Charlie.

A couple of the students around the class nodded in agreement.

“Good!” beamed Mr Grainger, “because you and Mr Priestley are going to be spending a lot more time together.”

“We shall also be studying some poetry from the First World War, and of course, the great William Shakespeare!”

Anthony and Athene’s faces lit up like all their Christmases had come at once.

“Which plays sir?” asked Athene.

“Romeo and Juliet, and Macbeth.”

“Speak not the name sir, speak not the name!” said Mark covering his ears.

“I mean um the Scottish play,” he chuckled.

“We shall be starting off with Macbeth,” he said passing out copies of the play.

Graham put his hand in the air.

“Yes Graham?”

“Are we going to be reading around the class sir?”

“It would be a bit boring for you lot if I did all the reading.”

“Can we do Scottish accents sir?” asked Malcom catching on.

“Only if they’re good ones,” said Mr Grainger smirking slightly as he opened his play and started to give out the parts.

Athene got to be Lady Macbeth, and Anthony was Macbeth as they had the most experience with reading Shakespeare. Charlie, Lucy and Lizzie were ecstatic as they got to be the three witches. Mark got to be Macduff Macbeth’s enemy.

Some of the Scottish accents were outrageous, but Athene didn’t bother with a heavy accent, she was too busy enjoying the beauty of the original text.

At the end of class, they all started to pack away their books to get ready for prep.

“Um Mr Knowles, Mr Pennington,” said Mr Grainger as Mark and Harry tried to leave, “I believe we have a meeting in my office?”

Mark looked like he might be sick, and Harry looked petrified.

“We’ll see you later,” said Anthony patting them on the back before he and Athene left.

“Good luck,” said Julie.

Mr Grainger was a new headmaster so they didn’t know if he used the cane or not, it was used in most schools. The Lower Fifth were all sat in prep nervously waiting to find what had happened to Mark and Harry, they had been gone a long time, the whole two hours of prep.

Eventually they got back to the dorm, where they found Mark and Harry looking dejected and Mark was massaging his right hand.

“He didn’t!” exclaimed Julie rushing over to him to check his hand.

“He wouldn’t have,” said Athene shaking her head, “he’s too nice.”

“It’s normal at most schools,” muttered Charlie.

“What happened?” asked Anthony asking the question everyone had wanted to know for the last two and a half hours.

“Well we went to the office,” muttered Mark.

“And Mr Mitchell was there as well,” added Harry.

“They shouted at us for what felt like hours,” sighed Mark.

“We’re supposed to be responsible and set an example for the younger students, you know the sort of thing.”

“What with all the staff changes everyone’s supposed to be on their best behaviour,” said Harry, “and you know we weren’t today.”

“It wasn’t just you,” interjected Charlie, “the whole class were acting up!”

“In History and English,” agreed Julie, “they should be punishing the whole class not just us!”

“As much as I’m sure Mr Mitchell would love to shout at the whole of Lower Fifth Alpha until his voice gave out,” said Mark, “we all know that me and Harry were the ringleaders.”  
“So what happened after the shouting?” asked Athene dreading the worst.

“Did he get the cane out?” asked Charlie breathlessly.

“No,” said Harry shaking his head.

“We just got given lines,” said Mark showing his ink covered hand.

“But we wrote for so long that it hurts just as bad.”

“No Mark it doesn’t,” muttered Harry who had been given the cane at his first school and didn’t want to experience it again anytime soon.

“He let us off with a warning this time, but if we or anyone else is the class acts up in class again, he’ll have no choice.”

“Thank bloody god!” sighed Anthony nearly fainting onto Athene’s bed.

“Oh God!” muttered Mark, “we’ve still got to do our homework!”

“And my hand is killing me!”

“It won’t take long,” said Athene encouragingly.

“We’ll help,” agreed Anthony.

“Just don’t do it again!” they said together.

“Don’t worry,” beamed Harry, “we’ve learnt our lesson.”


	40. Chapter 40

Christmas Entertainment Script again- Was going to do High Society for this year, but then realised it didn’t come out until 1956, so that will be Upper Fifth show. Instead the show for this year is loosely based on an idea from a Christmas entertainment in my school days when the Year 11’s got stuck at school over the holidays with the staff because of the blizzard.

Cast list-  
Athene, Anthony, Mark, Harry, Julie, Charlie as themselves  
Various sixth form boys as third form girls  
Head Boy as Mr Grainger  
Sports Captain as Mr Davies  
A large burly rugby player as Matron  
An Upper Third boy as Mr Jones  
Graham as Mr Mitchell  
Lizzie as Miss Smith  
Rest of house as various other students and staff

Scene is set with the Lower Fifth students in English class. Most of them are looking bored and are half asleep at their desks. They are all looking forward to the holidays starting tomorrow. Mr Grainger is stood at the front of the class reading from Macbeth

Mr Grainger in an exaggerated Scottish accent. - Is this a dagger I see before me? Clutches at thin air over dramatically trying to find an invisible knife.

Athene who had been looking out the window- Um sir.

No answer

Anthony- Sir?

Still no answer.

Anthony and Athene- Lord Macbeth!

Mr Grainger without the Scottish accent slightly annoyed at being disturbed in the middle of his soliloquy- Yes?

Athene- Um sir, it’s snowing

Mr Grainger somewhat confused as he’s still thinking about Shakespeare- it’s what?

Anthony- It’s snowing sir!

Mark rushing over to the window- Blimey it is!

About half the class rush over to the window

Harry enthusiastically- Does this mean we can go home early sir?

Mr Grainger- Quite possibly, I’ll have to go discuss it with the rest of the staff

Mr Grainger leaves the room, and Athene and Anthony look slightly crestfallen as they had been enjoying the play. The rest of the class start messing around as the teacher has left the room.

Charlie- Christmas starting a whole day early!

Harry- It seems too good to be true

Mark pulling out a radio- Well lets make the most of it then!

Julie- Ready Fred?

Mark- Ready Ginger!

Turns on Rock Around The Clock and Mark and Julie start jiving enthusiastically around the room. Some of the other students dance on top of the desks including Harry and Charlie. Athene tries to ignore all this and gets on with her reading.

At the end of the song Mr Davies comes onto the stage.

Mr Davies- Any of you lot in here in my house?

A couple of the boys from Mr Davies house get down from the tables.

Charlie- Why sir?

Mr Davies ushering his own house students quickly out of the room- Oh it’s nothing just need to talk to them about something.

Charlie shrugs and sits down on one of the windowsill’s with Harry as they wait for Mr Grainger to return.

Harry rubbing at the window to clear it- Um guys, why are there five minibuses driving out the school gates at sixty miles an hour!

Mark going to join him- It’s Davies! He’s driving his students off the school property!

Charlie trying not to laugh- he’s got the prefects driving the minibuses!

Julie- Well that’s one house evacuated, one down three to go

Athene- What are you talking about? It’s not snowing that hard!

Anthony also looking out the window- Then why does Mr Baker appear to be taking his entire house on a nature walk with their suitcases?

Harry laughing sarcastically- Yeah, a nature walk the two miles into Aldershot where they can get the trains home!

Julie mouths two down

Mark- We’re not going to get snowed in are we?

Charlie- Well that would be a jolly bloody Christmas.

Mr Grainger comes running into the classroom with Mr Mitchell

Mr Grainger- Well the snow seems to be getting a lot worse so Mr Mitchell and I have been drawing up a evacuation plan  
Athene- Mr Davies, and Mr Bakers houses have already left

Harry- And I’m less much mistaken I just saw Mr Taylor’s house trudging their way down to the bottom of the hill in snowshoes.

Mr Mitchell- Well we’d best get the minibuses out because we need to get you lot home too

Charlie looking out the window again- You’ll have to think again sir, Mr Davies has just come back without the minibuses, they probably got snowed in.

Mr Grainger somewhat awkwardly – It looks like you’ll lot be staying here this holiday then

Mr Mitchell smiling and giving jazz hands- Merry Christmas!!

The students glare at him

Scene change, the staff room, the staff are all very angry and shouting, Mr Davies has just come in out of the snow soaked to the skin.

Miss Smith- I don’t know about you lot but I had plans for this holiday. Plans that didn’t involve being stuck here with eighty students!

Mr Davies moving over to her- I’ll keep you warm Mary!

Miss Smith flinches away from Mr Davies looking disgusted

Mr Mitchell- None of that thank you! There is going to be no hanky panky!

Mr Davies- Hey at least I came back to help! Baker and Taylor both got out of here and didn’t both to come back!

Mr Grainger- Look I know this isn’t the Christmas any of us had planned, but we need to make the best of things, if not for ourselves then the kids.

Mr Davies- screw the kids! If it wasn’t for Mitch’s house we could all try and walk to Aldershot or something.

Matron- We live at the top of a hill and there is now at least a foot of snow out there, and more by the second!

Mr Jones- Why didn’t you get your kids out faster Mitch?

Mr Mitchell- Well whilst the other housemasters were taking their students on nature walks and stealing the minibuses glaring at Mr Davies

Mr Davies feigns complete innocence

Mr Mitchell- Me and the headmaster were trying to plan a way to get ALL the students out of the school, by the time we’d figured it out, the minibuses were gone and so were most of the students

Mr Grainger- Well the good the news is, there’s plenty of supplies to get us through until the snow melts, oil, canned and dried food

Mr Davies- We might even get some red cross packages dropped in

Mr Grainger- and the bad news is, none of us are going home for Christmas

Scene change, Mitchell House common room. Room full of shouting students, Mr Mitchell is at the front trying to get some attention.

Mr Mitchell- Quiet please!

Harry whistles loudly- Oi! Shut it!

Mr Mitchell- Thank you Harry

Mr Mitchell- I’ve been talking to the other teachers, I’m afraid you’re all stuck here. The people from the Aldershot base are going to drop in some packages with extra food, and possibly the odd letter from home

Julie outraged- Like that’s supposed to make up for not going home for Christmas! My parents were going to take me to the ballet!

Mark- Celia’s giving birth! We’re meant to be becoming Uncles!

Anthony nods in agreement

Mr Mitchell- Yes I know! I know!

Harry- Can’t we just taboggan to the bottom of the hill with our bags and then pull our suitcases.

Mr Mitchell- yes that would work, if there weren’t eighty of you, we actually had even one toboggan and there wasn’t over a foot of snow at the bottom of the hill

Athene- I think we should just make the most of it, it’s not every year we all get to spend the holidays together.

Mr Mitchell leaves the stage

Charlie- Hey, why don’t we go raid the tuck cupboard

Harry- It’s our food anyway

Mark- And if they’re sending in parcels by air, they’ll send more stuff tomorrow

Anthony- There’s not much left, it’s the end of term

Charlie- Enough for one large midnight feast though, I’ll bet

Scene change, Charlie, Harry and several other boys are emptying the tuck cupboard to carry back to common room. One of the boys is keeping guard over the door Mr Davies walks onto the stage

Mr Davies- I wonder if those kids have got any tuck left, I could do with something sweet. Surely, they won’t miss just one bar of chocolate….

Boy on guard- It’s the dragon!!

Charlie, Harry and other boys grabbing all the tuck and yelling- RUN FOR IT!!!

The students sprint off the stage and Mr Davies see them running away in the distance

Mr Davies- You’ll pay for this! 

Harry from off stage- Bring it on Dragon!

Charlie also from off stage- You’ll have to catch us first!

Mr Davies facing the audience, looks like he could breathe real fire- This means war!

Scene change, care packages have been delivered by air force. The staff are going through the packages, and Mr Davies is packing his own box. 

Mr Grainger checking the list- shouldn’t there be chocolate in these?

Matron in a high squeaky voice- I gave it to the students

Mr Mitchell- What was that Matron?

Matron, in his usual ‘rugby pitch’ voice- I gave it to the students

Mr Davies screams- You what!!!!!!

Other members of staff seem to be ignoring Mr Davies, they are clearly used to his ranting

Mr Grainger- Matron is there something wrong with your voice?

Mr Davies still screaming- She gave the chocolate to the students is she crazy!!!

Matron voice returning to her high squeaky voice- Oh yes, its fine

Mr Davies screaming even louder- Are you fuc

Mr Mitchell interrupting Mr Davies- Calm down Evan, it’s just chocolate

Mr Mitchell handing out letters- here, a letter from your sister, I’ve got to deliver the rest of these

Mr Davies stops screaming and looks at the large numbers of letters. His face suddenly splits into a huge grin and he starts cackling maniacally as he takes the letters and walks off stage still cackling

Mr Jones- What’s wrong with him?

Miss Smith- Sometimes it’s best just not to ask with him

Scene change Mitchell common room again the students are gathered and have set up camp in the common room rather then their dorms. The common room is full of blanket and pillow forts.

Mr Davies walks onto the stage as they’ve just finished dividing up the chocolate fairly between all of the students

Charlie eyeing him suspiciously- If you’ve come to try and nick our tuck, you’re too late

Mark- This lots all accounted for, one bar each

Mr Davies smiling in a creepy fashion- Oh no don’t worry I’m not here for you chokies, I’m afraid I have some bad news somehow smiling even more!

Anthony nervously- Bad news, how can this get even worse?

Athene terrified- I don’t think I really want to know

Mr Davies grinning and showing all his teeth- I’m afraid that one of the boxes from the airforce has been misplaced

Julie- which box?

Mr Davies- the ones with your letters from home

All the students yelling- What!!

Anthony logically- Wait a second, how did the air force lose one box if all the others were fine?

Mr Davies stops grinning for a moment as he thinks- Well they dropped the box, but it missed the school. Somehow it rolled down the hill to the bottom.

Charlie frantically- can’t we go get it back then?

Harry nodding- Yeah, there’s not too much snow apart from at the very bottom of the hill.

Mark- Maybe we can figure a way of lifting it up

The students all look very excited

Mr Davies- Ah well you see the thing is, it rolled away from the hill, and then a lorry came from around the corner trying to clear some of the snow, the lorry somehow knocked it into a field of cows. And then if you’d believe it, the cows stampeded towards the box and trampled it. Your letters have all been trampled into the mud and snow.

The students are all gobsmacked, and Mr Davies leaves the stage cackling maniacally yet again.

Athene shaking her head nearly in tears- all our letters trampled into the mud and snow

Anthony, putting his arm around Athene- it’s unbelievable, the chances are beyond high

Mark crying- knocked into a field of cows!

Julie also crying- it had to be that one that missed

Charlie- you’ll pay for this

Harry and Charlie look at each other- Davies!!!

Anthony- what are you talking about?

Harry getting up looking furious- he’s got out letters

Charlie- there were no cows! He made all that rubbish up! 

Julie- but why?

Harry- he wants revenge

Charlie- if its was he wants

Harry and Charlie- its war he’ll get!!

Harry, Charlie, Athene, Anthony, Julie and Mark all storm to the staff room

Harry- Give us our letters!

Mr Grainger- You’ve already got them

Mr Mitchell- I gave them to Mr Davies

Mr Mitchell looks over to Mr Davies who is grinning maniacally as he flicks through the eighty letters. Mr Davies realises they’re looking at him and smiles innocently

Mr Davies laughing- oh what you meant these letters?

Charlie storms over to him and takes the letters.

Harry threateningly- you’re going to regret this Davies

Mr Davies picking up Harry by the scruff of the neck- you’re the one that’s going to regret this Boyo!

Puts Harry back down

Mr Davies, Harry and Charlie glaring at each other ominously- This means war!!

Mr Jones- War!!

Mr Grainger- Davies wait! You can’t do that!!

Mr Davies holding out his hand for Harry’s- the battlefield?

Harry nods and shakes the hand- at dawn

Harry, Charlie, Athene, Anthony, Julie and Mark leave the stage to go prepare

Mr Jones to Mr Mitchell- They’re not actually going to war? Are they?

Scene change, the ‘battlefield’. The two opposing sides meet on the rugby pitch for the ‘war’. The fifteen students are wearing ‘warpaint’ (they have actually just painted streaks of Julie’s red lipstick onto the cheeks)

Mr Grainger- Right, two halves, forty minutes each way, whoever gets the most tries wins!

The match is played, but there is large amount of cheating, Mr Davies keeps on trying to trip up students ect. Final score 51-53 to the students.

Mr Davies so fuming he might actually be breathing real smoke and fire- no you can’t win!

Charlie laughing- sorry sir! But we already have!

Mr Davies reaches down on the floor and throws a snowball at Charlie. A snowball fight ensues, (snowballs really just balled up paper).

The End


	41. Chapter 41

“Twas the day before Christmas, and all through the house. Not a creature was stirring, not even a Mark.”

“Good morning Tony,” muttered Athene somewhat drowsily.

It was only six o’clock in the morning, but Athene didn’t mind being woken up. That Christmas, Athene and Captain Llewelyn were staying at the Pennington’s for a week. They had arrived the day before and were staying until New Years. 

Simon and Celia had also come home for Christmas this year, firstly because they wanted to spend Christmas with their family, and secondly Celia’s baby was due within the next few weeks, and Celia wanted to be close to her family when she had her first child.

Athene yawned slightly and got out her crochet, it was Christmas tomorrow, and Athene wanted to finish all the things for Celia and Simon’s new baby. She had already finished the blanket, and several pairs of baby boots, today she was just finishing a yellow cardigan for the baby.

“What are we reading today?”

“A Christmas Carol,” beamed Anthony pulling out his book and settling down on top of her bed.

As Anthony got towards the end of the book two hours later, Athene could hear someone walking slowly and carefully up the stairs to the attic. This was probably either Celia who was only a fortnight away from her due date, or Uncle Davy limping up the stairs on his bad leg with his walking stick.

“God bless us! Everyone!”

“Amen to that!” chuckled Captain Llewelyn as he came limping into the room and sat down in the armchair in the corner.

“Morning Kids,” he beamed.

“Morning Uncle Davy,” said Athene getting out a darning needle so she could start sewing together the cardigan.

“I think you’ve made enough now Cariad,” chuckled Uncle Davy eyeing the large pile of crocheted baby things that Athene had made over the last six months.

“You know,” she laughed as she added the cardigan to the pile, “I think you’re right!”

Athene and Anthony spent the morning carefully wrapping their Christmas presents up in Athene’s room in the attic. They knew that they wouldn’t get disturbed up there, especially if they left the door shut.

That afternoon Athene was hanging out in the sitting room with Celia, Simon, Nick and Anthony. Anthony was reading the Two Towers again and Athene was making granny squares. Nick was proofreading a manuscript for work.

Celia looked exhausted and had her feet up on the sofa. Simon was keeping an eye on the fire and making sure that Celia was warm enough.

“Do you know what my Christmas wish would be?” asked Celia.

“What?” laughed Athene.

“That this baby would just hurry up and get here already!”

“Every time that I try to move, I feel like I’ve got a giant cannonball attached to my stomach.”

“Don’t worry Cels,” said Simon gently sitting down next to her and massaging her shoulders, “just another few weeks, our little boy will be here before you know it.”

Celia glared at him slightly.

“Boy or girl!” he corrected himself quickly.

Celia rubbed her stomach for a second as she felt the baby kick her.

“There isn’t any gingerbread is there?”

“I’ll go and check,” chuckled Simon kissing her on the forehead and going through to the kitchen.

“There’s going to be one thing that you’ll miss when your baby comes,” said Nick smirking and looking up from his work.

“Oh really?” asked Celia entirely unconvinced, “and what might that be?”

“Simon catering to your ever whim.”

“You know,” beamed Celia as Simon came back with a large piece of gingerbread, “you’re right.”

That evening before midnight mass, everyone was gathered in the sitting room for Mark and Julie’s Christmas Eve show. The Bells, and the Fforbes Hamilotons had all arrived, they were all going to be going to church together for the midnight service. 

Mrs Bell kept on fussing over Celia, checking she was alright, had had enough to eat, that her pillows were properly plumped up.

Athene was sharing a large armchair with her Uncle Davy, and Anthony was sitting by the piano waiting to begin.

“You ready Marky?” called Nick out into the corridor.

“Ready!” called Mark and Julie.

Anthony cleared his throat loudly and stood up.

“Mark Brian Pennington, and Juliet Victoria Fforbes Hamilton, are proud to present to you, their two man, or one man and one woman, production of.”

“Drumroll please.”

“The Nutcracker!”

“This should be good,” sniggered Simon as Anthony sat back down at the piano.

Julie came dancing into the sitting room in a tutu with her pointe shoes. As there was only two people in the whole show, there was a lot of doubling up on roles. Julie for example was having to play, Clara, the Mouse King, the snowflakes, and the sugar plum fairy. Mark on the other hand, was having to play a party guest, the nutcracker, a Russian dancer and goodness knows what else.

Then they all got their coats, hats and scarfs on. They were all walking to church as it was only a fifteen-minute walk. They brought several torches with them as it was so dark being nearly midnight.

As there was fourteen of them, they took up three whole pews in the church. After the service they all talked to the vicar before heading home.

Mr Pennington, and Mr and Mrs Bell had been talking to the vicar for nearly five minutes, and they were all waiting for them outside in the graveyard to finish so they could head home. It was freezing cold and pitch black, and they could hardly see in front of them without torches.

“God it’s freezing,” muttered Julie as she pulled her coat on closer for warmth.

“Come on Jules,” said Mr Fforbes Hamilton putting his arm around her as the Fforbes Hamilton’s headed home.

“See you tomorrow!” called Julie as they left.

Athene noticed that Celia was biting her lip and grimacing slightly again. She had been doing this all the way through the service.

“Um Celia are you ok?”

“I’m fine,” she smiled slightly breathlessly, “it’s just the baby, it’s kicking again.”

“Cels?” asked Simon nervously clenching onto Celia’s hand, “are you sure you’re alright?”

“Hmmm,” she mumbled smiling slightly.

Then she grimaced again and gripped onto Simon’s hand, she didn’t bite her lip this time though.

“Oh god,” she muttered as she looked down at her shoes, “oh god!”

“Simon!” she half screamed, “I think the baby’s coming.”

“What?” asked Simon frantically.

“The babies coming!” she screamed.

Simon seemed to have gone into shock, and Nick had pelted down the graveyard at top speed to go and pick up the car so they could all get to the hospital.

Athene and Anthony were looking at each other as if unsure what to do. Was there anything that they could do to help? Mark’s eyes were shining like stars through the pitch black, he was enjoying every moment of this. Going into labour on Christmas day after the church service? It was like a soap opera!

Mrs Bell who had been talking to the vicar suddenly came rushing out into the graveyard.

“The baby!” said Mrs Bell putting her hands-on Celia’s shoulders.

“Have your waters broken?”

“Hmmm,” said Celia nodding nervously.

Mr Pennington nudged his eldest son. Simon had been staring into space with his mouth hanging open.

Simon seemed to come back to his senses and went to comfort his wife.

“You’ll be fine Cels,” he assured, “Nick’s getting the car, and you’ll be fine. My Mum did this three times, you’ll be fine.”

“It’s the most natural thing in the world,” said Mr Bell who was trying to keep his own wife from panicking.

At this point, the range rover drove into view at sixty miles an hour. There wasn’t space for them all in the car, so Simon and Celia went in the range rover, with Mr and Mrs Bell, and Mr Pennington.

“We’ll call you when we get any news,” said Mr Pennington as they all got in the car, “you lot get home and get some sleep.”

Anthony nodded somewhat nervously, what if something went wrong?

Anthony, Athene, Mark, Mrs Brown and Captain Llewelyn all walked back to the house and got into their pyjamas. But for some reason, Athene couldn’t sleep. She closed her eyes, but all she could think about was Celia in that hospital, what if it went wrong! People died in labour!

“Athene?” whispered Anthony poking his head around her door checking if she was awake.

“Can’t you sleep either?” she whispered.

Anthony shook his head as he turned on the light and got under the blankets with Athene to keep warm. It somehow just didn’t feel like Christmas, with so much of the family at the hospital.

Anthony was reading the Two Towers out loud to Athene. After a few hours though, Athene thought she could a ringing coming from downstairs. 

She checked her watch and saw it was six o’clock in the morning.

“Can you hear the phone?”

“Well there’s only one way to find out,” shrugged Anthony.

He put his book away and they both raced downstairs in their dressing gowns and pyjamas. The telephone on the hall table on the first floor was indeed ringing.

They both gathered around the receiver as Anthony picked up the phone.

“Hello, Pennington residence?”

“Tony?” said Mr Pennington.

“Hi Dad,” said Anthony sighing in relief.

“How’s Celia?” asked Athene.

“She’s fine,” said Mr Pennington.

“Gave birth about half an hour ago.”

“Is she alright?” asked Anthony dreading the worst.

“They’re fine, they’re both fine,” assured Mr Pennington, “you have a niece, her names Nicole.”

“Oh that’s a lovely name,” beamed Athene.

“After Simon’s brother, and the fact that she was born on Christmas day.”

“It’s perfect,” said Anthony.

“Merry Christmas,” said Mr Pennington, “we’ll all be home soon.”

“Merry Christmas!” called Athene and Anthony.

All the worry that had been nagging at Anthony all night suddenly disappeared.

“Everybody wake up!” yelled Anthony rushing up the stairs and knocking on people’s doors.

“What’s the matter?” asked a very grumpy and drowsy Mark.

“What in the world in wrong Tony?” asked Mrs Brown in her dressing gown.

“Celia and Simon had a little girl, her names Nicole.”

“If anything’s worth being woken up this early,” said Captain Llewelyn, “it’s that!”

A couple of hours after that Celia and Simon came home with the others and their new baby.

“She’s so tiny,” said Athene as Celia passed her baby Nicole.

“She’s so beautiful,” said Anthony.

“Just like her mother,” agreed Simon.

Simon’s face was shining with joy as he looked at his daughter, Celia looked exhausted but very happy.

“Right,” said Mr Bell, “who wants presents?”

Anthony was very excited to get the last Tolkien book, The Return of the King, which had only just come out. But what Athene was more excited about was giving out the Christmas presents she’d been working on.

Athene carefully passed Mrs Bell Nicole, as she handed Celia the crocheted baby things.

“Oh Athene!” said Celia as she looked at the baby blanket.

“I’ve never seen anything more beautiful!”

“And look at this,” said Simon as he looked at the pale-yellow cardigan.

“It’ll take a bit of growing into,” laughed Celia, “but it’s beautiful!”

“You like them?” stammered Athene.

“Well of course we like them,” said Simon giving Athene a hug, “and Nicole’s going to love them!”

“They were made by her favourite aunt after all,” nodded Mark


	42. Chapter 42

One Monday afternoon after Rugby in late February, the Lower Fifth were waiting for Mr Grainger to arrive for English class. They had finished studying Macbeth and the war poetry and had now started studying The Lord of the Flies.

“I’m just saying,” said Charlie, “if they let us girls play on the team, we should have won that match against Coldwaltham last week.”

Michael Smith, one of the students from Mr Davies house started to laugh raucously.

Charlie snapped her head around to look at Michael.

“Something funny Michael?” asked Charlie.

“Oh God here we go,” muttered Anthony as he tried to ignore them.

“Well it’s just, we got slaughtered in that match,” laughed Michael, “we lost 21 to 63.”

“Ok fine,” muttered Charlie, “but we wouldn’t have lost so badly!”

“What makes you say that?” asked Rupert one of Michael’s friends.

“Because I’m the best scorer,” said Charlie.

“Out of the girls yeah,” said Rupert.

“But that’s not saying much!” said Michael.

“Look just leave it Charlie,” muttered Harry.

This conversation had happened so many times before, the other houses always thought that the girls weren’t any good at rugby, but Charlie always wanted to show them that she wasn’t.

“Look Mr Davies won’t let you play rugby because he doesn’t want you to let to get hurt,” said Michael as he stopped laughing.

“Yeah!” said Rupert, “you might break a nail!”

“And I might break your necks!” threatened Charlie trying to climb over the desks to the back of the classroom where the boys were.

Harry was trying to hold Charlie back as Rupert and Michael jeered at them.

“Just ignore them Charlie,” said Athene, “they’re all mouth and no balls!”

“If we had a proper match, we could prove it.”

“Yeah right Richards!” laughed Rupert.

“Like you can get your head out of a book long enough to catch a rugby ball!” agreed Michael.

Athene turned around dropping her book on a desk and glared at him.

“Afternoon all!” called Mr Grainger walking into the classroom with perfect timing as always.

“Sorry I’m late, meeting with the Head Boy overran.”

Mr Grainger looked around at Charlie who was still being held back from launching herself at Michael and Rupert, to Athene who was glaring at the boys.

“Did I miss something?”

Harry let go of his hold on Charlie and they both sat back down at their desk.

“Charlie seems to think she’s better at rugby than the boys,” explained Michael.

“Well I’m better than some of the boys,” she interjected.

“Oh yeah?” smirked Rupert, “name one!”

“Anthony,” offered Charlie.

Even Anthony didn’t try and correct her, he was the worst player in the whole team, he usually ran away from the ball as fast as he could so he wouldn’t get hurt.

“Malcom,” added Lucy.

“And Mark,” said Lizzie.

“Well I’ll give you Mark,” said Rupert.

“But that’s only because he cant be bothered,” said Michael, “you can’t play rugby properly! In general boys are better than girls!”

“If you hate girls so much why don’t you just change schools,” said Julie.

“Yeah maybe I will, the world would be much better with no girls! No teachers either for that matter!”

“Michael,” said Mr Grainger from the front of the class, “have you read The Lord of the Flies yet?”

Michael seemed slightly confused by this sudden question.

“Um no sir,” muttered Michael, they were only just about to start that book today.

“Well once we have read it, why don’t we see how you think about a world without adults and girls.”

Michael seemed to be even more confused, but Mr Grainger just ignored it. 

“If I could see the girls after class, but as for now on with the lesson!”

They read the first few chapters of The Lord of the Flies, and then it was the end of the lesson.

“Right, boys off to prep with you, ladies, I think we need to talk.”

Julie and Charlie looked at each other, Lucy and Lizzie seemed terrified, Athene was merely curious.

“Don’t worry,” chuckled Mr Grainger, “you’re not in trouble.”

Charlie shrugged and followed Mr Grainger to his office with the other girls.

“Right then Charlie, I think that today whether unknowingly or not, you have shown me the extent of one the serious problems in this school.”

“What’s that?” asked Julie.

“Sexism. Many of the boys in the school look down on you girls and underestimate you.”

Athene looked at him curiously, none of the boys in their own house underestimated them. It was well established within Mitchell house that Athene and Charlie were the best flyhalfs in the whole year, and Athene and Anthony were tied for first place in every single subject.

“Are you sure you’re talking about the right school sir?” asked Charlie, “because if this school underestimates me, why am I able to be in the cadets?”

“Oh no I’m not talking about the staff, or your own housemates. I mean the boys from the other houses, such as Michael and Rupert and their friends.”

“What are you trying to say sir?” asked Athene.

“Well I believe that this is a progressive school. I think that it’s time we teach those boys who they’re messing with.”

“What?” muttered Lucy.

“I think we should have a school challenge day, boys vs. girls.”

“A challenge day?” asked Julie confused.

“Oh yes,” nodded Mr Grainger, “a rugby match of course, no contact.”

Charlie’s mouth dropped open, as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Perhaps home economics, a school quiz of course, and possibly an assault course as well.”

“Are you joking sir?” asked Lizzie.

“Why would I joke about something as important as this?”

“A quiz?” asked Athene.

“We’ve got to beat the boys in home ec,” said Lizzie, “they’re hopeless!”

“Well I hope you do girls,” beamed Mr Grainger, “you’ve got a month to prepare, it will be on the last day of term.”

“Aye aye sir!” beamed Charlie giving him a smart salute.

After prep, all the girls met in the girls dorm.

“Excuse me Mark you a girl?” asked Charlie.

“Last time I checked no,” he shrugged.

“Get out then!” said Athene pointing towards the door.

“See you later Ginger,” said Mark leaving the room with his tap shoes.

Julie checked that Mark had left properly, before shutting the door, and leaning one of the chairs under it so that the boys couldn’t get in.

“Are any of you going to tell us what’s going on?” asked Rebecca a Third form girl.

“Ok girls,” said Charlie, “have you had enough of the boys from the other houses saying that they’re better than us?”

There was a large amount of muttering.

“Even though they’ve got no proof whatsoever?” asked Athene.

The third and fourth form girls all nodded.

“Well it’s time we do something about it!” said Julie, “In a month we’re going to have school challenge day.”

“We’re going to put those boys in their place,” said Lucy.

“We will fight them in the classroom!” called Athene.

Loud cheering and clapping came from the other fifteen girls.

“We will fight them in the kitchen!” said Lizzie.

“We will fight them on the assault course!” said Julie.

“We will fight them on the battlefield!” cried Charlie.

The clapping and cheering stopped, and the younger girls looked at each other in confusion. They weren’t actually going to war, were they?

“I mean the rugby pitch,” said Charlie correcting herself quickly.

“And we will never surrender!” shouted Athene.

A great war cry went out around the dormitory. It was time to show those boys who they were messing with!


	43. Chapter 43

The girls spent the next month preparing. Charlie and Athene were having to teach them how to play rugby properly, Charlie was teaching them all how to do the cadet assault course, and Julie was timing them with a stopwatch. 

There was very memorable evening in the first week where Charlie, Athene and Mr Davies were teaching them how to tackle.

“We’re going to get crushed,” said a tiny third year girl with long blonde plaits.

“They’re twice our size!” agreed a lower fourth girl.

“Don’t worry we’ll be fine,” assured Charlie nodding at Athene.

“Just watch,” said Athene laughing slightly.

“Give us your worst Dragon!” called Charlie down the pitch.

“Ready ready up!” called Mr Davies as he pelted down the pitch with the rugby ball.

Athene and Charlie sprinted towards him, and dived at his legs, clinging onto one leg each. Mr Davies toppled right over, as Athene and Charlie knew he would.

“So we just grab them by the legs?” asked Lucy.

“And they’ll fall right over?” asked Catherine an Upper Fourth girl.

“Like a tree,” nodded Charlie as she pulled herself up off the ground.

“Is there any way to beat the boys without getting muddy?” asked a lower fourth girl.

“No,” said Athene, “and we need you all on board with this, a rugby team needs fifteen of us, and there’s only twenty in the first place.”

“Can’t we just let the boys win the rugby and the assault course?” asked an Upper Fourth girl with her arms folded across her chest.

“We could just go practise our baking, and for the quiz.”

“Hey!” interrupted Charlie, “that’s what the boys want us to do! To give in!”

“Are those boys better than us?” shouted Julie.

“No,” muttered a few of the girls.

“I’m sorry what was that?” asked Athene.

“Are those boys better than us!” screamed Julie.

“No!!” yelled the girls.

“Well bloody show me that then!” shouted Mr Davies as he got ready to start running again.

Lucy and Lizzie looked like they’d rather die than try and tackle Mr Davies.

“You can do this,” assured Athene, “just go for the legs.”

“Ready ready up!” shouted Mr Davies.

“Up!” yelled Lucy and Lizzie before charging at him, throwing themselves into the mud and grabbing onto his legs.

They got very muddy, but they did manage to get Mr Davies on the ground.

On the evenings when they weren’t practising the rugby or the assault course, they were perfecting their cake recipes and studying for the quiz. Each team was allowed two people from each year group in the quiz team, up until Lower fifth because the girls only went up to Lower Fifth. If you were in the quiz team, you weren’t allowed to take part in the home economics competition. For the assault course, each team was allowed four people.

Most of the girls were having to take part in more than one event, as the rugby match alone needed fifteen. But they were only allowed in two events each at the most. 

Athene was the team captain for the quiz, and Charlie was in charge of the assault course. They were joint captain of the rugby team though. 

Julie had somehow managed to get out of being on the rugby team and was fifth reserve, this meant she only had to play if five people got injured. She was in charge of the home economics team though and was on the stopwatch when they were practising the assault course. She was also on the quiz team with Athene, because Julie was the best of the girls at pop culture, so if there were any questions about music or cinema, they could count on her to get it right.

The day finally came, and the girls were terrified. Athene tried to eat her breakfast and found herself being sick in the toilets. If they lost today, Harry and Mark would never let them live this down.

The assault course and the home economics took place at the same time as each other. The boy’s chocolate cake was safe to say disastrous, it was like old shoe leather, but the Harry narrowly beat Charlie across the line at the assault course, so they had one event each.  
Then came the school quiz. The two team captains Athene and Anthony smiled at each other nervously across the stage. They had agreed to put their relationship aside for the day, and not to get annoyed at the other one if their team one.

It was a close fight, there were questions on everything from the capital of Argentina, and find the square route of four hundred, to who stared in it’s A Wonderful Life.

“Last question in the film and music round,” said Mr Mitchell who had been asking the questions, “who first sang, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas?”

Julie pressed the bell on their desk.

“Yes Fforbes Hamilton Julie?”

“Judy Garland.”

“That is correct,” beamed Mr Mitchell.

“I’m afraid we have a tie,” he chuckled, “two hundred and fifteen points each, and that was the last question.”

“So we have a tie breaker for our two team captains, if one of you gets this right, you win the quiz.”

Anthony and Athene both nodded at each other.

“As I’m making this up on the spot, this is a Latin question.”

Anthony gulped heavily and Athene looked terrified, the whole school were staring at them. She had to get this right!

“Decline the following verb, dicet.”

Anthony rang the bell on the boy’s table.

“Yes Pennington Anthony?”

“Dicet. Third conjugation, third person singular.”

He seemed to grimace for a minute as he thought.

“Active, present. He, she or it says.”

“I’m afraid that’s not quite right Anthony, you’re thinking of dicit” sighed Mr Mitchell.

“Athene?”

Athene took a deep breath.

“Dicet. Third conjugation, third person singular.”

She stopped for a moment.

“Active, future. He, she or it will say.”

The whole school were on bated breath,

Mr Mitchell smiled at Athene and nodded.

“That is correct,” he beamed.

“The final score is 205 to 200 to the girls. The ladies win the quiz!”

“Well done Athens,” said Anthony coming over to give a hug.

“Did you get that wrong on purpose Tony?” asked Julie smirking.

“No actually I didn’t,” laughed Anthony, “I got my present and future mixed up!”

As afternoon approached the girls were leading two to one, but the boys weren’t going to let the girls win! There was still the most important event of the day left. The rugby!

Charlie didn’t admit it to anyone, but as she got ready on the rugby pitch she was scared. Those boys were bigger than her, especially the sixth formers. They weren’t going to win. It was impossible!

“So,” said Athene in their last team huddle, “go for their legs, get the ball.”

“When you’ve got the ball, run like you’ve never run in your life. Gaining any ground is something!”

“You ready Charlie?” asked Lizzie.

Charlie nodded firmly. They might lose, but they weren’t going down without a fight!

The game was rough that was for sure, the boys were not going to let the girls were win and kept on trying to knock them out of the way. But the girls kept on tackling the boys to the ground by teaming up and grabbing their legs.

An hour and a half later, the boys were winning, they had twenty three points, and the girls had twenty.

But Charlie had the ball, and they had a minute left to play. But Michael and Rupert were running at her. What was more important, proving to this two idiots that she could play rugby, or winning the match.

She kept on running and just as Michael and Rupert were about to tackle her, she threw the ball back to Athene who ran down the other half of the pitch, dodging her way out of the boys teams and placing the ball right in the middle of the goalpost.

Mr Davies blew his whistle. It was a tie, twenty-three points each.

“Ok girls,” he said, “you’ve got fifteen seconds, kick that ball over the goalpost, and you’ve won the match.”

“Do you want to take it?” asked Athene.

Charlie beamed at her.

“You’ve been playing rugby since you were two, if anyone can kick that thing over the goal post, it’s you.”

Athene nodded and ran over to the ball.

She positioned it properly about ten metres away from the goalpost and gave it a firm kick right in the air.

Charlie’s mouth was hanging open as she watched the ball fly through the air and straight over the goalposts. It was a perfect shot.

Mr Davies blew his whistle. It was all over, the girls had won twenty-three to twenty-five.

Michael and Rupert’s mouths were hanging open. The girls couldn’t have beaten them at rugby. They must have cheated somehow. Right?

Mr Grainger came into the middle of the pitch with a shiny new cup, and the whole school was listening.

“Well it was a close call at some points, but the boys won the assault course, whilst the girls won the home economic event, the school quiz and the rugby match. This makes the girls the clear winner of the St Christopher’s first ever challenge cup!”

He handed a very muddy but ecstatic Athene and Charlie the silver cup which they lifted up between them.

“I think this shows you boys, never underestimate the girls. They might just surprise you!”


	44. Chapter 44

10th July 1956

Dear Athene,

It’s strange that I only saw you a week ago, it feels like so much has happened since the end of term.

Baby Nicki is getting quite big now apparently. Simon and Celia are still in London for now, but they’re going visit in August. Nick goes into visit his goddaughter and namesake sometimes after work. Apparently, baby Nicole is threatening to move on from crawling to walking, so Celia keeps on following her around the house with a camera, wanting to get her first few steps on film! Can you believe that Nicole is six months now?

I haven’t seen Mark and Julie that much this holiday so far, they’ve been to the cinema nearly every single day. High Society is on at the cinema in Horsham, so they keep on going to watch it. I haven’t seen Mark so excited about a film since Singin in the Rain a few years back. High Society has got a stellar cast, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Grace Kelly and Louis Armstrong and his entire band!

Julie is ruddy devastated though. This is going to be Grace Kelly’s last ever feature film. She is getting married to Prince Rainier of Monaco and therefore is having to retire at the ripe age of twenty-six. Grace Kelly is Julie’s favourite actress, so she’s really upset. 

Here’s a question for you though, if you had to choose would you rather be a film star, or a princess?

Mrs Brown had her leaving do yesterday. I still somehow can’t believe she’s gone she’s always been here. Dad’s bringing the new housekeeper down from London today. I wonder what she’s going to be like, younger than Browny I suppose…

I’m looking forward to you visiting in August, maybe we can read through your new copy of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

I miss you loads, yours always Anthony Charles Pennington

As Anthony finished writing his letter, he started hearing singing out in the corridor.

“Who wants to be a millionaire? I don’t!”

“Well too bad!” shouted Nick, “because we already are!”

“Now shut up! It’s far too early for your Frank Sinatra impression!”

“You’re just jealous,” chuckled Mark.

“Am I?” asked Nick sarcastically.

Anthony smirked to himself as he left the laundry cupboard.

“Tony,” sighed Nick as he bumped into his other brother on the stairs, “can’t you find a way to stop Mark from singing. At least until after breakfast?”

“I’m sorry,” chuckled Anthony, “but nobody can stop his singing.”

“Morning boys!” called Mr Pennington.

“Morning Dad,” beamed Mark his face lit up like a beacon.

“I’m sorry if breakfasts not up to its usual standard,” muttered Mr Pennington blushing slightly, “but I’ve done my best.”

“It’s fine Dad,” shrugged Nick.

“It’s perfect,” beamed Anthony as he tucked into his cornflakes and toast.

“What you three up to today then?”

Mark started to open his mouth.

“No wait let me guess!”

“Mark, you and Julie will go see High Society at the cinema three times today.”

“Not quite,” chuckled Mark, “we’re going to see it once, and then come back to the house and start figuring out the dance routines.”

“Why can’t you practise at Julies?” muttered Nick, “just for once?”

Mark however ignored him.

“Now then Nick, it’s a Saturday, and its good weather, so I think you’re going to take the spare car for a drive in the country, and maybe take a nice young lady out for lunch at a country pub.”

“I don’t know any nice young ladies,” chuckled Nick, “but other than that spot on. Drive in the country and pub lunch.”

“And that just leaves you Tony, lets see. You are going to head into village to post your letter to Athene, then you’re going to do your homework. Then you’ll have lunch, and then you’ll practise piano for an hour or so. Then you’ll do some reading, possibly Tolkien, or maybe Arthur Ransome.”

“I am a creature of habit,” blushed Anthony.

“And don’t you ever change Tony,” said Nick ruffling his hair, “you’re perfect!”

“Ok now boys, don’t forget, make your own lunches. I’ll be back with Isabelle about three.”

“Hey Dad,” suggested Nick, “seeing as she’s going to be new, maybe she shouldn’t have to cook tonight. I could go and get fish and chips or something for everyone.”

“That’s a wonderful idea Nick,” beamed Mr Pennington, “now I’ve got to go, we mustn’t keep the lady waiting.”

It was a warm day, so Anthony enjoyed his walk down to the village. He was wearing a polo shirt and jeans and had tied his jumper around his neck in case it got a bit chilly later so he could pull it on.

He went into the post office as usual to post his letter, he thought he might get some sweets as well whilst he was there. The post office not only posted the letters, but also had several large jars of sweets behind the counter.

“Good morning Anthony,” beamed the postmistress, “perfect timing as usual.”

“Good morning Mrs Jones,” said Anthony handing her the letter.

“One letter and half a pound of rhubarb and custard sweets please.”

He walked back to the house and did some History homework for a few hours. After a quick sandwich for lunch, Mark and Julie were already back from the cinema and were now in the attic messing around to their High Society record on the grammar phone. 

As it was a nice day, he found himself reading outside rather than in his room or the linen cupboard as usual. He was reading the Aeneid this afternoon. He had read it before, many times but he felt like rereading it today. And so, Anthony found himself reading under his favourite tree, absently mindedly sucking on a rhubarb and custard sweet.

He was just getting to the good bit, Aeneas was just about to leave Dido behind in Carthage to go to Italy, when there was a loud shouting.

“Hey Tony!”

“Tony!”

“Oi! Aeneas!!”

Anthony looked up from his book curiously, Mark was hanging out of the attic window and calling for him. Julie was hanging out the window with him waving.

“Dad’s back with the new girl!”

“Oh!” said Anthony in realisation. He had been so emersed in the book he had completely forgotten about the new housekeeper coming that afternoon.

Anthony picked up his book and bag of sweets and headed back into the house. Mr Pennington and Nick were stacking her luggage at the bottom of the stairs having unloaded her suitcases from the car.

There was a very tall woman that Anthony had never seen. She had strawberry blonde hair which fell to slightly below her shoulders and was today pulled into a neat ponytail. She was wearing a red and white striped t-shirt which was tucked into a pair of high-rise jeans. She was the complete opposite of what Anthony had been expecting, she was nothing like Mrs Brown or even Matron from school. This woman couldn’t be more than twenty!

“Mark, Anthony,” said Mr. Pennington, “this is Isabelle, our new housekeeper.”

“Hi,” said Mark cheerfully waving.

“Hello,” muttered Anthony nodding.

“Hello,” said Isabelle smiling. She had a lilting French accent and when she smiled you could tell it was clearly genuine, as her eyes smiled too.

“Mr friends call me Izzy,” she told them shaking their hands.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” said Nick somewhat foolishly, “um Izzy.”

“Izzy is going to be here for a year or so to improve her English,” explained Mr Pennington.

Anthony noticed that Nick seemed to look somewhat crestfallen, Isabelle was only staying for a year!

“Um pardon Mark,” said Isabelle laughing slightly, “but why are you wearing tap shoes?”

“Oh,” laughed Mark, “I’m practising my tap with my friend Julie in the attic.”

“Well then you’d best get to it,” said Isabelle, “you never want to keep a young lady waiting.”

Mark rushed back upstairs to the attic, his shoes tapping all the way. 

Nick was all too happy to help Isabelle carry her suitcases up to her new room.

“Well,” said Mr Pennington once Mark, Nick and Isabelle had left, “I think we can say that the new girl is a success?”


	45. Chapter 45

The next day however was not as sunny as the Saturday had been. Anthony woke up it was chucking it with down with rain. 

“Well you can’t everything in the world,” he muttered as he got out a clean pair of trousers and a warm jumper.

“Let a man sleep Tony,” grumbled Mark.

Anthony smirked at his half-asleep brother as he went to go and take a bath and wash his hair. Then he went to go write a letter to Athene as usual. As he finished writing his letter however his senses were assaulted by one of the most beautiful smells in the world. He had to be imagining it, because he was certain he could smell freshly baking croissants.

He headed down to the kitchen and found that he was not wrong. It was nine o’clock on a Sunday morning but there were croissants in the oven. It was clear he was not the only early riser in the house now, because Isabelle had clearly been up just as long as he had baking.

“Bonjour Anthony,” she beamed as she laid the table for breakfast and got out the jams, “breakfast will be about twenty minutes.”

“Do you mind if I read down here?” asked Anthony, “it just smells so wonderful.”

“I won’t get in the way!” said Anthony quickly in case she said no.

“Well of course I don’t mind,” she laughed, “if it was Mark and his friend Julie they might get in the way, but you’re just reading.”

Anthony smiled slightly as he sat down at his usual place and got the Aeneid back out.

“That is a very large book,” she said clearly impressed, “you read a lot?”

“I love to read,” shrugged Anthony as he opened his book, “always got a book on the go.”

“Are you good at school?”

“Top of the class,” he nodded, “about from Athene.”

“Can I ask a question, if I’m not disturbing you?”

“Course,” said Anthony looking up.

“I was looking around the house yesterday, trying to get used to where everything is. Do you by any chance have a sister?”

“No, three brothers.”

“Oh, then who lives in the attic? That is clearly a girls room, there is a dressing table, and pink bedsheets.”

“Oh,” said Anthony in realisation, “you mean Athene’s room. She’s my girlfriend, she comes to stay sometimes in the holidays. She’ll be here next month.”

“Ah, you have a girlfriend?”

Anthony blushed slightly.

“And your brother Mark does he have a girlfriend?”

“Nope, just Julie they’re best friends but nothing romantic there last time I checked.”

“And Nick?” she asked curiously, almost hopefully.

“Is he seeing anyone?”

“Err no, but that’s from lack of trying,” chuckled Anthony, “he just doesn’t seem to have found the right girl.”

“Oh,” said Isabelle in a small amount of relief.

Anthony seemed somewhat confused and went back to his book as Isabelle finished preparing the breakfast.

“You know the rules Tony,” said Mr Pennington firmly taking Anthony’s book from him as he sat down.

Anthony opened his mouth as if he was about to try and protest, but he knew it was fruitless. Besides those croissants smelt so good, he hadn’t been paying full attention to Vergil anyway.

“These are amazing,” muttered Mark closing his eyes as he went into ecstasy over the breakfast.

“You’d better not spoil us this much everyday Izzy,” chuckled Mr Pennington, “I’ve got to try and keep my figure!”

“My mother taught me, hers are much better of course.”

“I sincerely doubt that,” said Nick as he spreaded liberal amounts of jam on his second croissant.

At that point there was a loud thump of the post being delivered through the door flap.

“I’ll get it!” said Mark leaping up from the table to go and get the post.

“He’s expecting his film magazine,” chuckled Nick as Isabelle looked at Mark incredulously.

“It arrives on Sundays,” Nick explained.

Mark came back a few minutes later, giving his Dad his Sunday newspaper and a number of bills or letters. 

“Here you go Tony,” said Mark handing him two letters.

Anthony looked confused, two letters? He usually got one from Athene but who was the other one from?

He opened the one on top first, it was surprisingly short.

Dear Anthony,

Guess what! Me and Uncle Davy are going back to Wales for a fortnight! 

He told me when he got back last night. He’s got a fortnight off, so we’re going to go and spend some time with some family friends the Morgan’s.

We are going to play rugby every single day, and if it rains we’ll play in the bloody rain!

I haven’t been back to Wales in so long and I cant wait to get packing. Wales is a part of me and I miss it every day I’m not there.

Got to go and pack, me and Uncle Davy are leaving tonight.

I miss you so much, I’ll send you a postcard from Wales, love always your Athene Ruth Richards.

“Well that was short,” muttered Anthony.

“Why?” asked Mark as he finished his breakfast, “she usually jabbers on for pages and pages.”

“Because she’s got to pack to go back to Wales.”

“Well that’s nice,” said Mr Pennington, “she must miss it.”

“Open the other one Tony,” said Nick.

“Oh yeah,” muttered Anthony opening his other letter.

There was two separate letters in this envelope and Anthony pulled out the one on top.

Dear Anthony,

As I’m sure you know, house prefects are chosen in Upper Fifth, two per schoolhouse per year. Mr Mitchell’s house has been given one girl and boy prefect for the upcoming year. You have been chosen to be one of our new prefects. Please find inside your new badge. This also means that you qualify to be chosen for head boy in Upper Sixth. Have a good Summer!

P. Grainger, Headmaster

Anthony seemed somewhat confused, why had they picked him to be a prefect? 

He shrugged and picked out the other letter.

Dear Anthony,

Congratulations! I am inclosing this letter, so you know why I have chosen you and Athene to be my new prefects. I have written to Athene as well.

First of all, you and Athene set a good example to the younger students, academically wise I mean. You two are beyond a doubt the two brightest students in the year and show that if you knuckle down good results can be achieved.

I know you’re not the most athletic boy in my house, but you don’t have to be. You’re a prefect, not a sports captain!

I also feel like you will do a very good job with dealing with the younger students. You’re quite open and I feel like you’d be willing to listen to their questions.

I am also aware, that although you might usually be quite quiet, you’re not afraid to speak up for yourself when you have to. For example, I know you know how to get people to shut up and behave themselves so that you can get on with your history lesson.

I know you’ll both do wonderful jobs. Have a good summer, and don’t study too hard.

Mr Mitchell

Anthony noticed that there was still something at the bottom of the envelope, a bright red, shiny new prefect badge.

Anthony stared down at his badge in his hand. Was this a prank? Were Harry and Charlie playing a joke on him?

“Ok bets all bets are off!” called Nick seeing the badge.

“Who had money that Anthony would get picked for a new house prefect?”

“I thought it was going to be Graham and Lizzie,” said Mark as he flicked through his magazine trying to find the new Frank Sinatra interview.

“My money was on Harry and Charlie,” said Mr Pennington.

“No,” said Nick, “they’ll be sports captains.”

“I know Simon placed money on Mark and Julie because they’re so popular,” said Mr Pennington.

Mark beamed for a second.

“Prefects aren’t a popularity contest,” scoffed Nick.

“But I had faith in my little brother,” said Nick ruffling a very confused Anthony’s hair, “which is why I bet on Anthony and Athene.”

“Fair enough,” muttered Mr Pennington and Mark riffling in their pockets and handing Nick a shilling a piece.

“You lot were betting on who’d be made prefects?” asked Anthony who was still slightly shocked that he’d been picked in the first place.

“Yep,” said Mark matter of factly as if there was nothing more obvious in the world.

“I’m going around to Julie’s,” said Mark getting up with his magazine, “this has got the new Grace Kelly interview.”

“Well done Son,” said Mr Pennington giving his son a hug before going to go and work in his office.

“What is a prefect?” asked Isabelle.

“Oh prefects, are chosen by the teachers and the headmaster. They are some of the older students in the school, and are meant to help the younger students if they have any problems, be a kind of role model for the younger students.”

“So they help the teachers and the students?”

“Yeah, it’s a big thing.”

“Congratulations Anthony,” she beamed.

“Thanks,” muttered Anthony.

Anthony went to go and post his letter, but Nick stopped him in the corridor. Within the four Pennington boys, each of the younger brothers had an older brother they got on better with. Nick and Anthony had always got on, and Mark and Simon had also always got on. 

Mark had gone to Simon when he was thinking about dropping ballet when he was eight because the other boys had been making fun of him at school, but Simon had told him to sod the other boys, and do what he felt was right. Anthony had gone to Nick a few years ago when he had started to have feelings about Athene, and Nick had told him that it was perfectly natural, and just to let nature take its course.

“You don’t want to go out in that Tons,” said Nick, “I’ll take that for you.”

“Why do you want to go out in the rain?” asked Anthony suspiciously.

“Well I’m taking the car,” he said quickly.

“Besides,” he said in a barely audible tone, “I um want to pick up some aftershave in Horsham.”

“Why do you want aftershave all of a sudden?” asked Anthony trying not to laugh.

Nick smiled somewhat foolishly and looked towards the kitchen where Isabelle was washing the dishes.

“Well I’ve got some news for you Nick,” muttered Anthony so no one else could hear them.

“She was asking me about your love life this morning.”

“What?” whispered Nick eyeing Mr Pennington’s office warily.

“She asked if you had a girlfriend, and I said you didn’t.”

“Then what did she say?” he asked frantically.

“Nothing,” smirked Anthony, “but she seemed relieved. I think she likes you Nick.”

Nick looked at his little brother. Anthony might be two inches taller than him, but he would always be his little brother.

Nick pulled Anthony in for a hug and patted him on the back.

“You’re the best brother in the world Tony,” he beamed taking the letter from him.

Anthony was still somewhat dazed as Nick drove away through the rain. His brother had just hugged him, which was not something that Nick did often, and told him he was the best brother in the world.

He shrugged slightly and went to go read in his linen cupboard. He pulled himself up onto the top shelf of the cupboard and looked out the window. It was chucking it down with rain, which is why he was glad he was inside today!

He got out his book and continued to read with his knees pulled into his chest. He had been reading for an hour or so and was completely immersed in his book. When the door opened, and Isabelle came in humming to herself.

“Mon Dieu!” she half screamed seeing the nearly sixteen-year-old boy reading in a cupboard. She had come in to get some clean towels for one of the bathrooms, and found Anthony casually reading on the top shelf.

“Anthony what are you doing in here?”

Anthony looked terrified, as he looked up at a shocked Isabelle.

“I um read in here,” he stumbled starting to get back down, “it’s quiet in here, I’ve kind of always read in here.”

“Oh,” said Isabelle calming slightly, “I am sorry I disturbed you.”

“No no that’s alright,” said Anthony getting down to talk to her, “I shouldn’t have been in here, this is your domain really. Mrs Brown didn’t really mind me reading in here, as long as I didn’t mess up her clean sheets and towels.”

“No it’s fine,” laughed Isabelle, “it’s just this family takes a bit of getting used to, between people tap dancing in the attic, and reading in the linen cupboard I don’t know what to expect.”

“I guess we are a bit eccentric sometimes,” agreed Anthony.

“No I like it,” beamed Isabelle, “it makes life more exciting. I don’t know what I’m going to walk into when I walk into room, dancing in the kitchen or swimming in the lake.”

“Oh no there’s no dancing in the kitchen,” said Anthony firmly, “it gets in the way. But Mark and Simon have gone swimming in the lake a few times, even though we do actually have a pool.”


	46. Chapter 46

Nick got back home from work, it had been a long week, and he had had a particularly long day. He had had a tediously long meeting with a new author about their manuscript. The author had been convinced that their book was perfect in every way, so did not need any editing whatsoever before publishing. But Nick knew that the book needed major changes before publishing, spelling and grammar checks just for a start.

He was just glad it had finally reached Friday evening and he could have a few days off. It wasn’t that he didn’t love his job, because he loved his job getting to work with writers and help make the magic happen. He just wanted a few days off. 

More importantly, if he didn’t have to go into work for a couple of days, he could spend some time with Izzy. Between the family and work, they hadn’t been able to spend much time alone together. Isabelle had been with the family for two weeks now, and they got on really well but with Nick being in London five days a week, and with either Mark needing Isabelle’s advice on his and Julie’s new costumes or dance routines, or Anthony wanting to talk about his new book, they hardly got any alone time, but Nick had a plan!

“Hi Izzy,” beamed Nick as he and Mr Pennington got back from the train station.

“Bonjour Nick,” muttered Isabelle as she put on the vegetables to boil to go with the dinner.

Nick sat himself down on one of the kitchen counters.

“So, tomorrow’s Saturday,” he said casually.

“I know that,” said Isabelle. 

“And, Simon and Celia are arriving with baby Nicole in a few days, and so’s Athene.”

“Hmm.”

“So this house is going to get even more chaotic and crowded than before.”

“What are you trying to say Nick?” She wished he would just get to the point.

“So I was wondering, seeing as we both have a day off tomorrow.”

“Oui?” said Isabelle smiling at him.

“Would you maybe like to go out with me tomorrow? Get away from this place for a bit?”

“What would you like to do?” she asked curiously.

“Well,” shrugged Nick with his hands in his trouser pockets.

“We could um, go for a drive in the country, and then stop at a nice pub for lunch. Then I was thinking, maybe we could go to the cinema, High Society is still running until the end of the weekend. Maybe we could find out what Mark and Julie have been obsessing about for the last month.”

“And whilst we are having a lovely time,” smiled Isabelle, “your brothers and your father will have to cook for themselves.”

“It’s only one day,” shrugged Nick, “they’ll survive.”

“Have you eaten your fathers cooking?”

“Er yeah,” Nick nodded, “I’d rather starve. Anthony’s pretty good though when he’s not distracted.”

“Tell you what,” he beamed, “Tony can sort out lunch, and if we catch the three o’clock viewing of the film, we can still be back here by six o’clock and we could bring back fish and chips for everyone.”

“So how does that sound?”

“Hmm,” she muttered trying not to look too excited, “it sounds, perfect.”

Nick pulled himself down from the counter and heard muffled laughter. He walked out into the corridor, and surprise surprise, Mark and Julie were standing out in the corridor trying to stop themselves from laughing. They had been listening to the whole conversation.

“Can I help you two?” asked Nick with his hands on his hips.

“Um no, I think you’ve already sorted it,” laughed Julie.

“Well done Romeo,” chuckled Mark.

Mark and Julie started running down the hallway before Nick could catch them.

“And you wonder why I’m taking her out for the day!” he yelled, “to get her away from you two terrors!”

Nick could still hear Mark and Julie’s cackling from the attic, when he went to his brother’s bedroom. Mark and Anthony were nearly sixteen now, but they still shared a bedroom. This wasn’t because of a lack of spare bedrooms, but because they wanted to share. It was fairly clear to anyone though; whose half of the bedroom was which.

Mark’s half of the room was untidy to put it lightly. There were shoes thrown everywhere and the bed was hardly ever made. Also, if Mark wasn’t actually asleep, half the time Mark’s guitar seemed to live on the bed. There was stacks of film magazine scattered around his half of the room. Also, his wardrobe was hard to shut as there was nearly always clothes spilling out.

And then there was Anthony. His bed was always immaculately made, and at the end of the bed was an immaculate row of neatly polished shoes. On Anthony’s wall was two bookshelves that took up the whole wall, all of the books were well read and looked after. 

He had to stand on his bed to reach his books usually, because although he was tall, most of the wall was taken up by a huge photo board. There was black and white photos that Anthony had taken over the last four years with his camera, Mark and Simon throwing a screaming Julie in the pool, Charlie and Athene lifting the trophy in the air on school challenge day, Julie Athene Lizzie and Lucy in their dresses from the Miss Britain contest. His favourite photo had actually been taken by Harry who had taken a picture when everyone hadn’t been watching. Mark and Julie were both trying to stretch their legs and had their feet propped up on Julies bed, whilst still having their shoulders on the floor. Anthony was reading to Athene as usual, as Athene did her crochet, and Charlie was sticking her tongue out at Harry who was holding the camera. 

There were only a few photos on his bedside table, and they were all framed, Nick and Simon holding baby Mark and Anthony. Mark and Anthony at Simon’s wedding last year. And the last photo, which was of Anthony and Athene’s backs, they were both sitting at the piano together, and Mark had taken a photo.

As well as having a wardrobe like Mark they had a shared dresser, and Anthony had a desk. On his desk was his fountain pen, writing paper, camera and usually a couple of schoolbooks.

Anthony was currently lying on top of his bed reading A Tale of Two Cities.

“Hey Tony,” beamed Nick standing in the doorway, “can I come in?”

“Hmmm,” muttered Anthony not looking up from his book, and readjusting his glasses.

Nick sat down on the end of Anthony’s bed and bit his lip slightly.

“So you’re enjoying some historical romance are you?”

“Mmm,” he muttered.

“Have you um missed Athene recently?”

“Well of course I have,” said Anthony putting his book down. Athene had been in Wales for the last two weeks, so he hadn’t had many letters, but it was alright because she was going to be staying with them for the whole of August.

Nick was sitting and staring down at his shoes looking surprisingly awkward.

“Nick is there something wrong?” 

It’s not that Nick didn’t spend time with Anthony, because he did. Its just Nick didn’t usually disturb Anthony when he was reading unless he had something to say. But today he was just being quiet.

“Look Tony,” he sighed, “your younger than me, and I love you.”

“But um, you have more experience romantically.”

“I’m sorry,” spluttered Anthony, “are you here for advice on your love life?”

Nick blushed slightly.

“Well you and Athene have been going out for a few years, and you seem pretty happy. I was wondering what the secret was.”

Anthony smirked slightly.

“Has this got something to do with Isabelle?”

“Maybe,” he laughed.

“Well the secret is Nick, there is no secret.”

“I’m sorry what?”

“Just be yourself. If she really likes you, all you have to do is be yourself. The magic will happen by itself if you just let it.”

“Tony,” said Nick getting up and ruffling Anthony’s neat hair, “you’re amazing you know that?”

That night, before Nick went to bed he prayed for good weather. The next morning, it seemed that God was on his side. It was a perfect late July day, the sun was shining, and there was not a cloud in the sky. He pulled on a pair of trousers and a light blue polo shirt with a pair of tennis shoes. He tied a cricket jumper around his neck in case it got cold later.

He put on some extra aftershave before he went downstairs, but not so much that it was intoxicating.

As he came down for breakfast Mark wolf whistled out at him.

“Look out Izzy!” crowed Mark, “a young lady might snap him up!”

Mr Pennington hit Mark lightly with his newspaper.

“Sorry Nick,” he chuckled.

Isabelle came walking over to the table at this point. She was wearing a summer dress which was made of a floaty material it was cream with tiny pink flowers. Her shoulder length hair was plaited into a half up, and it looked like the colour of sunshine.

“Bonjour Nick,” she smiled as she came over with a fresh pot of coffee.

“Good morning Izzy,” said Nick grinning slightly foolishly.

“You look um, lovely.”

“Merci,” she said laughing softly.

“Mercy is about right,” muttered Mark.

“Anthony,” asked Isabelle, “are you sure you know how to do the lunch?”

“Um yeah, fry the sausages, cut the bread, put the sausages in the bread.”

“Bonne,” laughed Isabelle.

“Well you two have a nice day,” chuckled Mr Pennington.

Nick chuckled softly, as he put his arm around Isabelle. 

“Oh, I nearly forgot!” exclaimed Isabelle as they left the house.

“A lady must never leave the house without her hat,” she beamed as she put on a straw summer hat with a pink ribbon.

“That’s a bit old fashioned don’t you think?” asked Nick as he helped her into the car.

“My Maman says that it is not ladylike to forget your hat,” she giggled as Nick put the roof down on the car.

The family had two cars now, the range rover and the two-seater which had a roof that could come down. Nick usually used the two-seater unless he had more than one passenger.

Nick turned on the engine and pulled away from the driveway. Once they reached the road, Nick gradually sped up the car. The road was empty today, and the weather was amazing. The wind was rushing through Isabelle’s hair as the car sped through the countryside, she had taken her hat off, so it didn’t blow away.

Nick had always thought that Isabelle was beautiful, but now it was beyond words. She was carefree and laughing, her hair blowing in the wind. Even her eyes seemed to be laughing!

After a while they stopped by a small country pub called The Wheatsheaf. Isabelle claimed them a table whilst Nick went in and placed their order.

He came back a few minutes later with half a pint of beer for himself and a cider for Isabelle.

“I would have gotten you a wine, but I don’t think they have any!” laughed Nick as he sat down.

Isabelle giggled before taking a sip from her drink.

“Hmm,” she muttered.

“This is really good!”

“So,” she asked propping her head on her hands, “what are we having for lunch?”

“That is for me to know, you to find out,” said Nick tapping his nose knowingly.

“So what do you think of the madhouse so far?”

“The madhouse?” she laughed.

“I mean come on,” he laughed, “our house isn’t normal! There’s Fred and Ginger up in the attic, Anthony walking around dazedly with his head in a book. And that’s before the others show up in a few days!”

“Oh that’s alright,” she shrugged, “I’m used to a pretty full house.”

“You got a big family?”

“Oh no, just me Maman and Papa. But my father is a producer in Paris.”

“Oh that must be exciting!”

“The house is always full of actors popping in.”

“Don’t tell Mark, he might try looking for a job!”

“Thank you for the warning,” she laughed.

At this point, the waitress came out with two plates of lunch.

“Ok so what is this?” asked Isabelle.

“Well that is red cabbage.”

“I can see that,” she laughed.

“And that is Toad in the Hole.”

“Qoui!” she stammered a forkful of food halfway to her mouth.

“I thought it was the French how ate frogs?”

“It’s not actual toad,” laughed Nick.

“It’s just what they call it, Toad in the Hole is just Yorkshire pudding with sausages in it.”

“Oh,” laughed Isabelle trying the food.

“Well it tastes amazing! The toad part is more than slightly misleading.”

After lunch they drove to Horsham and went to the cinema. They got a bag of hundreds and thousands between them.

“The film will be starting soon,” said Nick putting his arm around Isabelle and they headed into the theatre to take their seats.

The theatre was fairly empty, as they had been showing this film for nearly a month, and it was only three o’clock in the afternoon. Most people wouldn’t come until the six o’clock viewing. In fact, the only people there was an elderly couple, a husband and wife with their four young children, and two very familiar faces.

“You have got to be kidding me,” muttered Nick as he looked into the theatre.

“Maybe we can come another time?” he suggested somewhat hopefully to Isabelle.

“What are you talking about Nick?” she laughed pulling him to some spare seats.

“Hi guys!” beamed Mark.

“What a surprise to see you here!” said Julie.

“We had no idea that this is where you were coming on your date,” said Mark innocently.

“Go boil your heads,” spat Nick.

It was hardly surprising that Mark and Julie were crashing their date. They had been haunting this theatre all month watching High Society, and they had known exactly which showing Nick and Isabelle would be at because they had listened to them planning their date yesterday.

“Oh Nick it’s ok,” shrugged Isabelle beaming sitting down next to Julie, “we can still enjoy the film.”

“Fine,” muttered Nick, “but if you two start singing, you’re moving.”

“You’ve got a deal,” laughed Mark as the film came onto the screen and they all settled down.

The film was amazing as Nick knew it would be, and although Mark and Julie mouthing along to all the lines was slightly off putting it didn’t ruin the experience for him and Isabelle. He even put his arm around Isabelle during the film and she snuggled up close to him.

“Ok I can see why you two are so obsessed,” admitted Nick as the film ended.

“I still can’t believe that Grace Kelly is retiring,” sighed Julie looking miserable.

“To marry Prince Rainier,” said Isabelle, “the most eligible and attractive bachelor in the whole of Europe.”

“She has got a point,” admitted Mark.

“I’ll see you at home Marky,” said Nick, “I’d offer you both a lift, but I’ve only got two seats.”

“That’s alright,” laughed Julie, “bye Nick, Izzy!”

Nick and Isabelle went to the fish and chip shop and got four portions of fish and chips and one portion of sausage and chips wrapped up in newspaper. Anthony didn’t like battered fish, so they always got him a battered sausage instead.

“So,” asked Nick as they headed home in the car, “how do you think today went. Apart from the date crashers.”

“Well,” she said smiling at him, “I had a nice time, and I’d like to go out with you again.”

“So, are you saying that you want to go out again next week?” asked Nick hardly believing his ears.

“I think I am,” she beamed.

Nick could hardly believe his luck, Isabelle had had a good time, he had had a good time. He was smiling all the way through dinner and even until he fell asleep. He fell asleep being fully aware that he had never had such a good day in his life.


	47. Chapter 47

A few days after Nick and Isabelle’s magical Saturday Anthony was up in the attic. He had been woken up by Nicole’s screaming at five o’clock in the morning. 

He loved his little niece, but God was she loud!

Simon and Celia had arrived with Nicole the day before.

He was in the attic because he was getting Athene’s room ready. She was arriving at eight o’clock because Captain Llewelyn was dropping her off before work.

Anthony was changing the bedsheets on her bed, so they were nice and clean. He put some white bedsheets which had tiny flowers embroidered on them, and then put one of Athene’s quilts on top. 

He had even gone into the garden to pick some wildflowers and put them in a vase by her bedside table. Anthony even straightened her framed photo of him and Athene. 

Anthony didn’t know why, but he just wanted everything to be perfect today!

He hadn’t seen in his girlfriend in a month, as she had been with her uncle and had spent half of the last month in Wales and he had missed her so much. He missed reading with her, he missed doing their homework together, he missed her sitting next to him whilst he practised the piano. 

He lay down on top of Athene’s freshly made sheets and got out Athene’s copy of Pride and Prejudice. He was more of a Dickens fan himself, he had never really quite understood Athene’s love of Austen, but he thought now was as good a time as any to give it another go.

He found that he was actually quite enjoying it, the bickering between Mr and Mrs Bennet. Mr Darcy trying to cover up his feelings for Elizabeth with indifference. He was so invested in the book that he didn’t hear the car pull up outside.

“Tony!” Mark called up the stairs.

“Tony! Tony where the hell are you!”

Athene came up into the attic to drop of her suitcase and was surprised to see Anthony reading. She wasn’t surprised to see Anthony reading; it was what he was reading that surprised her.

“Hello Anthony,” she said sitting down next to him on the bed.

“I thought you said that Austen was a lot of boring nonsense about social etiquette.”

Anthony responded to her without even looking up from his book.

“Beneath the social etiquette there is actually quite a lot of humour and intrigue.”

“You don’t have to tell me that,” she laughed, “you know I love Austen!”

Anthony looked up from his book curiously for a second and didn’t see Julie or Isabelle or even Celia. It was Athene, his beautiful Athene. 

He didn’t know how it was possible, but Athene was somehow even more beautiful than she had been a month ago. She had her hair in one long plait today, and her eyes were shining like a pair of perfect emeralds. It was more than that though, seeing her for the first time in a month, Anthony realised that she had filled out. She wasn’t as skinny as she used to be, she was still petite, but she wasn’t as thin as a stick.

“Athens!” he exclaimed dropping the book and pulling her in for a long kiss.

“I’ve missed you,” he muttered after they had kissed for what felt like hours.

“You surprise me,” she laughed her eyes lighting up like stars.

“Your beautiful you know that?” he whispered brushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

She blushed and shook her head at him.

“Come on Anthony lets go eat some breakfast before you waste away entirely.”

“Hey!” interjected Anthony getting up from the bed.

“Just because you’ve put some weight on doesn’t mean you can call me skinny!”

“We both know the reason that you’re skinny,” she laughed as they headed down the stairs.

“You just don’t eat properly, you’re too busy reading your books.”

“You know,” he muttered, “you might have a point.”

When they got downstairs, Simon and Celia were already sitting at the table with Nicole. The new parents looked exhausted but happy. Nicole was wearing a pink romper suit and was babbling away incoherently as Simon ate his breakfast. She was seven and a half months old now and looked like her mother, she had cornflower blue eyes and pretty blonde hair.

“Hello,” beamed Athene, “you must be Niki?”

“Eh,” said Niki.

“She knows her name!” said Simon proudly as Niki grabbed the end of Athene’s plait.

“I think she also likes your hair,” laughed Celia.

“Can I hold her?” asked Athene looking at the Nicole as if she was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

“But of course,” said Celia passing the baby onto Athene’s lap.

“You’re gorgeous aren’t you,” she beamed holding Nicole.

“Thank goodness she takes after her mother rather than Simon,” smirked Mark as he sat down.

“Oh by the way, does that thing have an off switch? It woke me up this morning.”

“That thing is my daughter,” said Simon, “and she has a name.”

“Sorry,” said Mark rolling his eyes.

“Still no answer on the off switch,” he muttered.

“Nicole’s crying is still no louder than your tap dancing or you tuning your guitar,” Anthony pointed out logically.

Mark opened his mouth to interject, before shutting it again like a trap.

Anthony looked over at Simon and Celia who were half asleep at the table.

“Niki,” he said gently, “do you think Mummy and Daddy would like a day off?”

“What?” asked Celia jerking awake.

“You do look like you could use it,” agreed Athene.

“Not denying it,” sighed Simon.

“How would you like to spend the day with your Uncle Tony and Aunty Athy?” asked Anthony taking Nicole from Athene.

“Eh,” said Nicole before blowing a little spit bubble.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” said Athene.

“And I’ll take that as our cue to go to sleep,” said Simon giving his brother a hug as Simon and Celia went to go get some shut eye.

As it was a nice day in early August the weather was hot and sunny, but there was a light breeze, so it wasn’t too sweaty.

Athene put on some sun cream and grabbed her hat before heading outside with a book. Nick, Isabelle, Mark and Julie were all messing about in the pool where it was nice and cool.

“Now then according to your Daddy you can walk?” said Anthony putting Nicole down in the grass.

“Hang on a sec,” muttered Athene coming over with the sun cream and rubbing some into Nicole’s face gently.

“There you go,” said Athene giving her a kiss on the forehead as she finished with the sun cream.

Nicole giggled slightly and kissed Athene on the cheek before rushing off.

“Simon lied!” said Anthony jumping up from the grass.

“The child doesn’t walk! She runs!”

Nicole was toddling towards the lake at top speed, and Anthony had to run to catch up with her.

Anthony spent the morning chasing Nicole around the garden, trying to keep her as far away from the lake and the pool as he could.

“You never run out of energy do you,” said Anthony breathlessly as he half collapsed onto the grass. 

He was holding a squirming Nicole who has giggling like crazy.

“Give her here,” laughed Athene as she took Nicole from Anthony.

“I think we’ve had enough running here,” she said getting Nicole comfy on her lap.

“This is called The Hobbit,” said Athene passing the book to Anthony, “it’s your Uncle Tony’s favourite author.”

“Take it away Uncle Tony.”

Anthony read to Athene and Nicole, whilst Athene made some daisy chains and kept an eye on Nicole. There was splashing in the background as the others swan in the pool on the other side of the garden.

After a while Nicole fell asleep on Athene’s lap, and Anthony put his book away and was lying down in the grass next to Athene, and they were cloud gazing.

“Athens?”

“Hmm,” she muttered looking up at the clouds.

“Do you want kids?”

“What?”

“Do you want kids?”

“That’s what I thought I heard,” she muttered.

“Anthony, we’re fifteen,” she reminded him.

“I know that,” he chuckled propping himself up on his elbows, “I meant in the future.”

“I don’t know, we did a fairly good job today, but this was just one day.”

“But I do know, one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“If I do ever have kids, I want them to be with you.”

“I’m flattered,” he smirked.

“There is one more thing though,” she muttered.

“What’s that sweetheart?”

“If we do have kids, I could never send them to boarding school.”

Anthony’s eyes opened and looked towards her. He was slightly shocked. Everyone he knew had been to boarding school all his friends, all their family friends sent their children to boarding school. It was the norm.

“Stop looking at me as if I’ve just told you I hate Latin,” said Athene who couldn’t stop herself from laughing.

“I’m sorry,” chuckled Anthony, “it was just a bit of a shock.”

“Anthony,” she sighed, “you’re lucky, you’ve got a family who love you.”

“We love you,” said Anthony quickly, “you know that!”

“Anthony, it’s not the same. I don’t have parents, I don’t have siblings. Even though you all treat me like family you’re not my family. I miss my parents, nearly every day.”

Anthony nodded slowly.

“If I got a second chance at a family, a husband, children I wouldn’t want my children to spend two-thirds of the year being looked after by somebody else on the other side of the country.”

“You don’t have to send them to the other side of the country,” interjected Anthony.

Athene gave Anthony a deeply meaningful look.

“Sorry,” he muttered.

“I get the point.”

“And by the way,” he said moving over closer to her.

“You’ll make a great Mum!”

Anthony tried kissing Athene on the lips.

“Mind the baby,” she laughed indicating the baby who was on her lap.

“You see,” he laughed, “great Mum!”


	48. Chapter 48

Athene was sat at her dressing table trying to debate whether to have one plait or two. Isabelle had cut her hair the other day, so now it was waist length which was still significantly shorter than it used to be. 

She would usually go for two plaits but when she had one plait she looked more grown up. She decided that as she was now a prefect, she should probably go for one plait than two as it made her look older. 

She was halfway through tying a black velvet ribbon onto the end of the plait, when Anthony came into the room.

“Morning my beautiful girl,” he beamed kissing her on the forehead.

“Bora da Cariad,” she chuckled softly as she adjusted her shiny new prefect badge.

“Perfect,” smiled Anthony.

“You ready to take on the world?” asked Athene straightening her blazer

“I don’t know about the world,” shrugged Anthony, “but fifteen first years. Sure!”

Anthony helped Athene carry her smaller bags downstairs as they went down for breakfast.

“Well if it isn’t the two perfect prefects,” scoffed Mark laughing over his cereal.

“You’re just jealous,” said Nick smirking at him, “because Anthony and I got badges, and you never did.”

Mark stuck his tongue out at his brother when Nick wasn’t looking. Simon saw him and smirked. Anthony simply wondered to himself when his brother was going to grow up and start acting his age.

Once everyone finished their breakfast, they started sorting out the luggage. It was the usual chaos. Celia tried helping with Athene’s trunk, but for some reason, Simon wouldn’t let her. Once all the bags were loaded in the car everyone stood outside the house.

“Right you,” said Mark holding Nicole, “you stop growing now you hear me?”

Nicole merely blew a raspberry at him.

“How are you so cute,” chuckled Mark passing Nicole to Anthony.

“Ok old girl,” he said putting her on his hip, “you keep working on your talking, you’re nearly there! I’ll see you at Christmas darling.”

Nicole gave him a very wet kiss on the cheek which made Anthony chuckle slightly.

“Bye Tony,” said Nick hugging his brother.

“Don’t forget, how do we deal with the first years?”

“Calm and steady wins the race,” recited Anthony and Athene.

“Keep calm, no matter how much they shout at you,” said Anthony.

“And if there’s a problem, take to slowly and do it properly,” said Athene.

“I’ve taught you everything I know,” said Nick his eyes welling up slightly, “good luck!”

“And Marky!” called Simon, “don’t forget to study! Those exams are sooner than you think!”

But Mark was pretending not to hear him as he got in the car.

On the drive to school, Mark was sitting in the front of the car, whilst Anthony and Athene chatted. This was probably going to be one of the last days off that they got off until June when their exams were over. Between GCE O exams and prefect duties, they weren’t going to get much time off.

Mark didn’t seem to care, he was too busy discussing the drama club that he and Julie wanted to try and form that year.

“Julie and I were thinking about putting on An Inspector Calls, its on the exam, and if we put on the show, it would be a great way of immersing ourselves in the text.”

“That is actually a great idea Mark,” said Anthony.

“You seem surprised,” smirked Mark.

“Oh no I’m not surprised that you’ve had a good idea. I’m surprised that you’re actually bothering to study for these exams. Usually you just cram the night before an exam.”

“Well I don’t actually need these exams,” he shrugged, “but if I have to get them, I should try and have a bit of fun doing it.”

“They’re not supposed to be fun Marky, and what in the world makes you think that you don’t need them?”

“I’m an actor!” he said dramatically.

Mr Pennington sighed and rose his eyebrows until they nearly reached his forehead.

As they arrived, Mr Jones was standing on the driveway, trying to sort out all the new students and tell them which dorms they were in. He didn’t to be coping to well, Anthony had only known Mr Jones for a year, but he could tell when Mr Jones was out of his depth.

“Morning Sir!” called Anthony as he hopped out of the car.

“Tony!” he sighed in relief.

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” he muttered looking nervously over to the several sets of parents he was meant to be talking to.

“We can tell,” said Mark in an exaggerated whisper.

“We’ll give you a hand,” laughed Athene.

Anthony, Mark and Mr Pennington carried all the luggage up to the dorms whilst Athene helped Mr Jones sort out all the new students and telling them which dorms to go to. There were eight new girls that year, which brought them up to a grand total of twenty-eight!

After helping Mr Jones get on his feet sorting out the first years, she headed up to her dorm to unpack.

No matter how old they got somethings never changed. Lucy and Lizzie were flicking through a copy of Tattler on top of Lucy’s bed gossiping about which of the boys was the cutest. Mark and Julie were doing their Fred and Ginger act. Mark had his High Society record on his record player and they were dancing around as Julie unpacked. And Charlie’s foot was tapping to the music as she did some last-minute homework. 

For a brief moment, it looked like Charlie had a prefect badge like Athene. But when she looked at the shiny red badge properly, Athene saw that Charlie’s badge read Sports Captain.  
“Hi Charlie,” said Athene as she started unpacking.

“Athene!” she exclaimed dropping her pen and giving Athene a hug.

“Help me with my History essay please!” she begged.

“What the essay you’ve had two months to do?” asked Athene raising her eyebrows.

Charlie nodded keenly.

“Oh alright,” she muttered, “but you’ve got to get your head down! These exams are in ten months!”

“Yada yada yada,” mumbled Charlie.

“Athene!” begged Lizzie, “please help me with our French grammar!”

“And the Latin!” added Lucy.

Athene shook her head in disbelief, she should have known that somethings never change. And one of those things was her roommates needing her help with homework.


	49. Chapter 49

The next day, they seemed to be getting the same lecture every single lesson. The exams are ten months away, time to get your heads down and study. Most important thing in their entire lives so far.

After lunch, Upper Fifth Alpha were sat in the English classroom. It had been a long day, even though all they’d done is revision in Math’s, French and Science they had still never worked so hard.

Harry couldn’t wait for this last lesson to be over, so he could hit the rugby field. One hour of Grainger droning on, and they’d be free for two hours of letting off steam on the pitch.

“Afternoon class,” said Mr Grainger as he came into the classroom with a large stack of books.

“Good afternoon Sir,” beamed Anthony.

“Good Summer sir?” asked Athene.

“Kiss ups,” coughed Mark who tried to look innocent when his brother looked at him.

“Good afternoon Anthony, Athene. Yes I did have a good Summer thank you. But now to business.”

“We’ve got a lot to get through, can anyone please remind what texts we’ve got left to study?”

Mr Grainger nodded at Athene as she put her hand up.

“An Inspectors Calls by J.B Priestly, Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare, and an anthology of war poetry.”

“Correct, we will also be revising Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, and Macbeth.”

There was a huge gasp of shock from Mark and Julie.

“I’m sorry,” he chuckled, “I meant the Scottish play throughout the year, so they are fresh in our minds for the exam.”

“To business,” he said handing out the books, “because An Inspector is Calling.”

“Bad joke sir,” muttered Charlie, “bad joke.”

“Be that as it may,” he smirked.

“The scene is set, April 1912, in a town in the North Midlands. A young girl has committed suicide, or was it murder? Wait and we shall see!”

An hour later, and they were out on the rugby field in their kit. But for some reason, Charlie wasn’t there she had disappeared mysteriously after English.

“Ok lads, we’ve got Rugby practise, the first under sixteens match is next week, don’t let me down!”

“No sir,” said Harry giving Mr Davies a brief salute. If Harry was the new sports captain, that made Mr Davies his Major.

“Girls, you’re going to try something else today, your new sports captain shall explain.”

Charlie had just come back to the pitch with a bunch of rackets.

“Mr Davies and I talked last term, and since there are so many girls now, and not all girls like rugby we thought we’d give something else a go. There still isn’t enough for a full hockey of lacrosse team a year, but there is a sport that you only need two people to practise.”

“What’s that?” asked Julie deeply wary.

“Anyone for Tennis?” asked Charlie passing around the rackets.

The girls spent about half an hour, practising hitting the ball against a wall of the sports hut. A while later, they started hitting the ball between each other. They weren’t very good yet, but they’d get there!

After P.E came prep. Prep went on for two hours, but even then, Anthony and Athene hadn’t finished their mass of homework. They had managed to do the French, Science and even the maths. But they still hadn’t managed to do the English essay.

After prep they all had their duties, Julie and Mark were trying to set up drama club, Charlie was doing tennis training with some of the younger girls, and Harry was getting some practise in for next week’s match. Anthony and Athene, as prefects had to help hand out the post.

As Athene was helping Anthony hand out the post the phone rang.

“Athene it’s for you!” called Lucy.

Athene ran down the corridor to answer the phone, who could be calling her at this time of day?

“Hello?”

“Hello Athy?”

“Uncle Davy,” she exclaimed.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine Cariad. I’ve been promoted.”

“Really?” exclaimed Athene.

“Yes,” he chuckled, “you are talking to Major David Llewelyn.”

“Anyway I’m just ringing you to let you know I wont be able to write for the next week or so.”

“Why?” asked Athene nervously. They wouldn’t have given him a promotion without reason.

“I’m going away for a few weeks, to Ireland.”

“You’re going to the front!” she stammered.

She had lost her father four years ago because of the army, her Uncle David was the only real family she had left.

“You know I’m at a desk job, I’m not going to be doing any fighting. I’ll be fine, with my gammy leg I can’t fight.”

“Then why are you going to Ireland!” she exclaimed.

“To assess the situation,” he sighed, “I’m in tactics, strategy. I have to know what the men are up against. Don’t worry I’ll be fine.”

“Alright,” she muttered.

“I’ve to go Athy, I need to pack.”

“I love you!”

“I love you too,” she muttered as the phone line went dead.

“What’s up?” asked Anthony as she came back over to the post sorting desk looking forlorn.

“Uncle David’s going to Ireland.”

“What’s so bad about going to Ireland?” asked Anthony as he closed up the post desk and they went to Athene’s dorm.

“They’ve just promoted him and now they’re sending him to the front,” she sighed.

“I still don’t see what’s so bad about Ireland,” sighed Anthony.

“Well I don’t know, Grandpa used to talk about the IRA, maybe it’s got something to do with them?”

“The IRA?” asked Anthony incredulously.

“But they haven’t done anything in ages,” he shrugged, “he’s probably just checking up on them.”

“That’s not what Grandpa used to say,” she muttered, “Grandpa used to say that as long as Ireland was under English rule, they’d never give up!”

“Athene,” he muttered softly putting his hands on her shoulders, “listen to me!”

“You have got nothing to worry about, there hasn’t been an uprising in years. There’s nothing wrong, if there is, we’ll deal with it. Now come on, let’s get on with that English essay.”

Athene nodded and looked enthusiastic at the thought of the distraction of an essay.

She carefully wrote out the title, ‘All Animals Are Equal, But Some Are More Equal Than Others. Explore the Importance of this Quotation in the Book.’

By the time that the others got back from their activities, Anthony and Athene had both finished their homework, and Athene was half asleep her head resting in Anthony’s lap.

“Shh!” muttered Anthony as Julie and Charlie came in.

“You have no idea how long it took me to get her to settle down, she nearly had a panic attack.”

“Exams?” whispered Julie.

Anthony looked at Athene sleeping peacefully and nodded. It was easier for him to say that it was the exams, than for him to explain about her uncle.

It was strange to think that they’d only been back a day. As Anthony went to bed, he mentally ticked off another day on his calendar. Three hundred days left until exams.


	50. Chapter 50

They were standing out in the corridor with torches. Lizzie and Lucy were holding a chocolate cake, and Julie was trying to light the candles on top, Charlie was watching the second hand on her watch.

“And five, four, three, two, one,” she whispered.

“Happy first of October,” Charlie beamed pushing the door open.

When they opened the door, it looked like all ten boys were asleep, but actually only two boys were properly asleep, and the other eight had rushed to bed as they had heard the door open in case it was Matron or Mitchell.

“Get the door!” whispered Harry frantically as the girls came into the dormitory. If they got caught, they’d all be for it.

Lizzie and Lucy moved over between Anthony and Mark’s beds with the cake, and they all crowded around.

Athene and Julie had to wake up the birthday boys.

“Anthony,” said Athene nudging him gently.

“Hmm?” he muttered waking up.

“What’s going on?” he mumbled looking around at the thirteen people with torches crowded around the two beds, two of which seemed to be holding a huge cake with sixteen candles.

“Happy Birthday Tony,” she whispered giving him a kiss.

“This is all for me?” asked Anthony incredulously.

“Well you and that idiot,” muttered Graham indicating Mark.

Mark slept like the dead, and Julie hadn’t been able to wake him up, so now Julie and Harry had started attacking him with pillows.

“What the hell?” shouted Mark as Charlie hit him in the face with a pillow.

“Shut up idiot,” hissed Harry.

Now that both Anthony and Mark were awake, Harry gave the signal, which was followed by a whispered version of Happy Birthday.

“Make a wish boys!” said Lizzie.

Anthony and Mark took a deep breath and managed to blow the candles out between them in one go.

“May this year be as prosperous as the last,” beamed Harry as Lizzie cut the cake.

“Why did you have to wake me up at midnight,” grumbled Mark who was still half asleep.

“Because we can,” said Charlie.

“It’s not everyday we get to eat chocolate cake in the middle of the night,” agreed Lucy.

“At least tell me there’s presents?” he asked raising his eyebrows.

They all gave each other meaningful looks.

“What makes you think you’ve got presents?” asked Julie with her arms folded.

“Because it’s my birthday,” said Mark hopefully.

“Oh yeah,” nodded Harry as they all started to pull letters and cards out of their dressing gown pockets.

Most of the gifts were silly little things, such as sweets and books. Julie had made Mark a scrapbook of articles on Frank Sinatra which was one of Mark’s new favourites. Athene had crocheted them both a pair of fingerless gloves Marks were red, and Anthony’s were blue.  
Nick and Simon had sent them both aftershave and razors. They hadn’t started needing to shave yet, but give it time.

Mr Pennington had sent them a portable radio between them, and some new records for Mark and some new Classics books for Anthony.

“There’s one more thing,” beamed Athene as she ran off to her own dorm for a second.

She came back a few moments later with a large tin.

“Please be Welsh cakes,” muttered Mark, “please be Welsh cakes!”

“It’s Welsh cakes,” laughed Athene as she handed around the cakes.

“You’re an angel,” said Mark giving Athene a hug as he took a Welsh cake.

“I know,” laughed Athene as she flopped down on Anthony’s bed, “you’ve told me before.”

“Many times,” added Anthony as he flicked through one of his new books.

They stayed up until six o’clock in the morning eating cake and drinking lemonade. At just before seven o’clock in the morning a head poked around the door.

“Good morning!” said Mr Mitchell in a sing song voice.

Fifteen heads whipped their way around to look at their deputy headmaster and house master. Athene looked like a deer caught in headlights. The room was full of discarded wrapping paper and empty bottles of lemonade. Six of the boys were sat on the floor playing poker with matchsticks.

“Oh bugger,” mumbled Mark as Lizzie and Lucy tried to hide under Malcom’s bed.

“Don’t worry you’re not in trouble,” he chuckled, “if I wanted to stop this party, I would have done so seven hours ago.”

“You knew?” asked Charlie.

“I know everything,” beamed Mr Mitchell.

“Well, that doesn’t sound ominous,” mumbled Harry.

“Anyway, this is just a reminder, that I don’t have problem with you lot staying up all night, as long as it doesn’t affect your schoolwork.”

“Oh and by the way,” he added as an afterthought, “there’s a random test in Latin today, good luck!”

“Well played Mitchell,” muttered Mark as they tidied away all the rubbish, “well played.”

It seemed as if Mr Mitchell had been spreading the word that his Upper Fifth dorm had been up all night, because in just one day they had a vocab test in Latin, a practise paper in Maths and a fitness test in P.E.

By the time they got to the end of the day, Athene and Anthony were so tired they could hardly move so had flopped down on Athene’s bed. 

Charlie and Harry were pretty tired too but were struggling to keep themselves awake as they had to go to cadet training. 

Julie was pinching herself every now and again, as she wanted to finish her English essay before dropping off to sleep.

But Mark, was being Mark. He was bouncing off the walls and dancing around the room listening to his new radio.

“How are you so awake Marky?” grumbled Anthony opening his eyes a fraction of an inch.

“One word,” said Mark smiling with all his teeth, “coffee.”

“How many coffee’s has he had today?” muttered Athene.

“I don’t know fifteen,” shrugged Mark still dancing.

“Athy! Tony! Come dance with me!”

But Athene and Anthony had fallen asleep on top of Athene’s bed, still fully dressed.


	51. Chapter 51

The Christmas holidays came, and Athene was looking forward to seeing her Uncle again. She was looking forward to a nice break from studying for once, Anthony and Athene had been working so hard for her GCE O Levels and they seriously needed the break.

When he came to pick her up though, Athene noticed that there was something different about her Uncle David. He looked different; it wasn’t just his new major’s uniform. He looked careworn and older. He was only forty, but today he looked at least fifty.

“Hi Uncle Davy!” she exclaimed rushing over to the car dropping her suitcase.

“Woah there Cariad!” he chuckled giving her a hug. As he saw her running towards him, his face suddenly lit up and he looked so much younger.

“I only saw you a few months ago,” he said shaking his head as he picked up her suitcase and put it in the car.

“I know, it’s just I’ve missed you!”

“I’ve missed you too little one,” he chuckled, “not so little now though are you?”

“How was Ireland?”

Major Llewelyn looked slightly shiftily around at the other families on the driveway.

“I’ll tell you when we get home.”

Athene looked more than slightly crestfallen, maybe he didn’t trust her to know the truth? She was fifteen, she deserved to know what was going on.

“I promise,” he assured her.

Athene opened her mouth as if to argue but then decided against it.

“What you getting up to this holiday?” he asked as they started the short drive home.

“Studying,” said Athene sighing deeply.

“Hey cheer up kiddo, you like studying don’t you?”

“I guess.”

“You are taking some time off, occasionally aren’t you?”

Athene looked at him slightly warily.

“I’ll take that as a no,” he chuckled.

“These are the.”

“Most important event in your life so far,” finished Uncle Davy, “I know you’ve told me, fifty times.”

“Tell you what,” he chuckled, “you’ve got a fortnight off, why don’t we lock the books away in spare room and have a nice time off. I think we both need it.”

“Sounds perfect,” she beamed.

They got back to the house and put up the decorations. Uncle Davy had only got back from Ireland the day before and was going back as soon as Athene went back to school so none of the decorations had been put up yet.

First, they put Athene’s books in the spare room and then they trimmed the tree and put up all the tinsel. They even made some Christmas treats. By the time that evening came the house was full of the smell of gingerbread and mince pies.

It was a fairly cold night as it was only a few days until Christmas, so Major Llewelyn lit a fire in the sitting room. Athene was knelt by fire with two jumpers on so she didn’t get too cold. Her Uncle Davy was sat in his usual armchair and looked exhausted.

“So,” sighed Uncle Davy, “I guess it’s about time I tell you what’s going on.”

“What?” asked Athene distractedly who had been staring into the flames.

“In Ireland.”

“Oh,” muttered Athene. In all of the excitement of getting ready for Christmas, she had forgotten about Ireland for a few hours.

She nodded at him as if to say to get on with it, as she wanted to get the worst over with.

“It’s the IRA,” he told her sadly.

She nodded, she had feared as much.

“They’ve been rearming.”

“What?” stammered Athene hardly believing her ears. 

Uncle Davy nodded solemnly.

“They’ve been raiding army bases for the last couple of years. Mostly guns, they’ve been getting ready for something big.”

“What happened?” she breathed.

“There have been bomb attacks, for about the last week. We think they’re trying to take the borders back.”

“You said attacks,” muttered Athene, “as in plural.”

“Yeah,” he nodded, “they’ve been raiding army bases, burning down buildings, and all around the border.”

Athene looked terrified.

“What are the army doing about it?”

“Well it’s not getting announced until tomorrow,” he sighed.

“But they’re going to arrest any suspected republicans and imprison them without trials.”

“They’re not even getting a trial?” asked Athene confused. 

She was still terrified but being sent to prison without a trial seemed unjust.

“Look Cariad,” he sighed, “I agree with you!”

“I tried convincing them to at least allow them trials, but I got shouted down. People are scared Athy, terrified!”

Athene leant her head against her Uncle’s legs, and he stroked her hair to try and comfort her.

“Uncle Davy,” she muttered turning around to look at him properly.

“Yes sweetheart?”

“I don’t want you to go back to Ireland in January.”

“Sweetheart, I don’t know how many times I have to tell you. I have desk job, I’m in strategy planning, I’m not on the front lines!”

“But that doesn’t seem to make a difference,” she sobbed tears running down her cheeks, “you just said so yourself, they’re attacking the army bases. You could die!”

“Athene Ruth Richards,” he said firmly, “I know you’re scared; I’m sometimes scared too.”

“You get scared?” asked Athene as she stopped crying for a moment.

“Of course, I do,” he chuckled softly kissing her on the head, “everyone gets scared.”

“But you know how it works. I get sent where I’m sent.”

Athene bit her lip as she tried to stop crying and she laid her head down in her Uncle’s lap. 

“I just don’t want to lose you, I’ve already lost Mum and Dad, and Granny and Grandpa. You’re the only family I’ve got left.”

“I love you too darling, and I promise you I’m not going anywhere, but you’ll be alright, you’ve still got Anthony.”

“Anthony’s my boyfriend not family,” she laughed as the tears stopped, “it’s different.”

“Hmm,” he muttered stroking her hair gently.

“Look, we’ve got a fortnight off right? Both of us?”

“Hmm,” she nodded.

“Well then, let’s make a pact. Until the second of January, neither your GCE O Levels or the IRA exist. Agreed?”

“Ok,” she nodded giving him a huge hug.

When she went to bed that night she felt safe and protected, because she knew that whatever happened in the future, for now, both her and Uncle Davy were safe.


	52. Chapter 52

Christmas morning came and the world was covered in a thin layer of frost. It hadn’t snowed, but the puddles had frozen, and the windows on the car had iced over. They didn’t have to leave for the Pennington’s until ten o’clock so Major Llewelyn and Athene had a quiet start to the day, opening their presents from each other and drinking cups of tea in the sitting room.

Athene had gotten her Uncle a new rugby jersey, and a nice new fountain pen. Uncle Davy had gotten Athene a new cashmere jumper which was navy blue, and some material for some new clothes. He would have bought her the actual clothes, but he knew that Athene preferred making her own dresses and skirts rather than buying them.

There was still a small box which he handed to her somewhat warily.

“I know you’re not supposed to wear jewellery for school apart from your earrings, but there is one exception.”

Athene looked confused as she unwrapped the box and found a gold chain necklace.

“What is it?”

Major Llewelyn chuckled slightly as he took the necklace out of the box, the cross had been hidden out of sight under the chain.

“It’s a crucifix, I was thinking it was about time you had one.”

Athene held her hair out of the way whilst he did up the necklace. It was fairly simple, just a plain gold cross, nothing particularly special. But that tiny little cross meant a lot to her.

“It’s nothing much,” he shrugged as she turned back around to face her, “but this is very important.”

“Athene, I want you to remember one thing,” he said as they looked directly into each other’s eyes, “whatever happens, however far apart we are, God is always there.”

“This is a reminder, that however difficult life seems or how upset you are, God is always there.”

Athene smiled up at him as she looked at her new cross.

“I love you Uncle Davy!” she exclaimed giving his a slightly teary hug.

“I love you too Cariad,” he chuckled.

“Now come on, you go put that kettle on, we’ve got to deice the car.”

Athene boiled some water over the stove, before mixing it with some cold water and putting it in a bucket, which they then threw at the car windows. This made the ice melt faster, and eventually the car was ice free and they both got in for the hour drive to Sussex.

“Well one things for certain,” laughed Uncle Davy as they left.

“What’s that?” asked Athene as she balanced tins if Welsh cakes, gingerbread and mince pies on her lap.

“This Christmas is a lot stressful than last Christmas.”

“This time last Christmas, Celia had already gone into labour in the churchyard, and baby Niki had been born in the hospital.”

“And all before ten o’clock in the morning,” finished Uncle Davy.

“I can’t believe little Niki is one,” said Athene shaking her head.

When they got to the Pennington’s, it would have been clear to anyone which house they were looking for even if they hadn’t known where they were going. There was two light pink balloons tied to the gate leading into the driveway. Today wasn’t just Christmas, it was also Nicole’s first birthday party.

As they pulled into the driveway, Simon was standing by the front door waving with Niki on his hip. Niki had a mass of beautiful golden curls on her head, and was wearing a pretty pink party dress, and Simon was helping her wave.

“Merry Christmas Simon!” beamed Athene giving him a hug.

Uncle Davy was following just behind her carrying the heaving tins of baked goods.

“And Happy Birthday little Niki,” aid Athene kissing Nicole on the forehead.

“Niki!” shouted Nicole proudly.

“She speaks!” exclaimed Major Llewelyn as they started unloading the presents from the car.

“Oh yes,” beamed Simon, “she can say Mummy, Daddy, Nicky, Marky, Tony, Izzy, Granny and Grandpa. Anthony and Mark have been trying to train her to say Athy, but she seems to be struggling with Julie for some reason.”

Simon and Uncle Davy took the presents through to the sitting room where the tree was, and most of the family were congregated. Athene went through to the kitchen to drop off the tins of baking and found Isabelle talking to Celia as Isabelle and Mrs Bell put the final touches to the Christmas dinner.

Celia was sitting down as everyone else rushed around, as she was pregnant again. 

“So,” laughed Athene as she gave everyone hugs, “when’s Niki’s brother or sister arriving?”

“Mid March,” chuckled Celia.

“Do you want a girl or a boy?” asked Isabelle.

“Well last time I wanted a girl, but I’ve got little Niki. I don’t really mind, but I know that Simon really wants a boy.”

“What about Niki?” asked Mrs Bell.

“Niki doesn’t care if it’s a girl or a boy, I don’t think she fully understands that she’s getting a sibling yet!”

“She’ll get used to it,” assured Athene.

“She hasn’t got a choice,” laughed Celia.

At this point Anthony came into the kitchen carrying Niki followed by Mark.

“How long until lunch?” begged Mark.

“Ten minutes,” said Mrs Bell.

“But if you don’t move out of the way I could make it thirty,” threatened Isabelle.

“I’m out of here,” said Mark terrified.

“Ok Niki,” said Anthony gently, “you remember what we’ve been practising?”

“Who’s this?” he asked walking over to Athene.

“Aunty,” prompted Anthony.

“Izzy!” said Nicole proudly.

“No try again,” chuckled Anthony.

“Aunty...”

“Athy!” yelled Nicole.

“Well done sweetheart!” beamed Celia.

“You’re a little beauty aren’t you,” said Athene as Anthony carefully passed her Nicole.

“Do you know what’s in your Mummy’s tummy?”

Nicole shook her head.

“Do you think it could be a little sister?”

Nicole shook her head again.

“How about a little brother?”

Nicole hesitated for a second, before nodding eagerly.

“Well, there’s the evidence you were waiting for Cels,” said Anthony shaking his head, “you’re having a boy.”

It was a very strange lunch, all the Pennington’s were there, as were Mr and Mrs Bell and Athene and her Uncle Davy. They had a full Christmas dinner with turkey and stuffing. But instead of a flaming Christmas pudding coming out after the meal, there was a birthday cake with one candle on top.

“You ready Niki?” asked Nick holding his goddaughter on his lap.

“I think she needs your help,” laughed Simon.

“We’ll do it together then!” said Nick before helping Niki blow out the candle on her first ever birthday cake.

After lunch, they opened the Christmas presents. But the best part came after that! 

They played pass the parcel, which confused Niki to no end, so Athene had to help her unwrap when it was her turn. Then Niki got to open all her birthday presents with help from Simon and Athene.

Anthony was far too busy trying to get it all on camera to help with the unwrapping.  
She got lots of toys and books, including a little teddy bear and copy of Winnie the Pooh from Anthony. Major Llewelyn had bought her the smallest Welsh rugby top Athene had ever seen, and Niki looked adorable init.

Athene had made her a tiny white jumper with a pattern of red dragons on it, and a tiny little red dragon soft toy.

Nicole’s first birthday party was a very memorable experience, Nicole would probably never remember it herself, so Anthony was taking endless photographs and filming everything. But the adults weren’t going to forget it. As Celia couldn’t get involved as much as she would have liked because she was six months pregnant, everyone else was all hands-on deck. They played all the party games, Charades, Hide and Seek which Anthony won because he had managed to squeeze himself behind a bookcase.

Finally after they had all eaten far too much cake and mince pies everyone headed home. It was strange to think that by the time that Nicole’s second birthday came along there would be two babies.


	53. Chapter 53

Athene was in her dorm packing for the Easter holidays. It would be nice to have a change of scenery. She was going to be doing the exact same thing for the next three weeks, studying from dusk until dawn for these blasted exams which were now less than eight weeks away. But at least she could study at home with her Uncle Davy rather than at school for a few weeks.

She couldn’t wait to see him, it seemed like such a long time since Christmas holidays when she had last seen him, there had been letters and the occasional phone call, but it just wasn’t the same.

As she did up her suitcase she swore she could hear the telephone ring downstairs outside the Common Room, maybe she was just hearing things?

“Athene!” called Lucy coming into the dorm.

“Your Uncles on the phone.”

“Thanks Luc,” beamed Athene rushing down to the telephone downstairs.

“Hi Uncle Davy?” she asked.

“Athene?” he asked slightly crackly, “can you hear me Cariad?”

“Loud and clear!” she beamed.

“I can’t wait for you to pick me up tomorrow, I’ve grown a whole inch!”

“That’s great sweetheart,” he said earnestly.

“But you see the thing is, I can’t pick you up tomorrow.”

“Why not?” asked Athene nervously.

“Because I’m not in England, they’ve asked me to stay longer in Ireland. I was meant to be going back to Aldershot for three weeks leave today, but things are still pretty restless here, my leaves been cancelled.”

“What?” stammered Athene.

She was terrified, if they were cancelling leave things had to be pretty bad!

“I’ve already talked to Mr Pennington; you can go there for the holidays. I know this isn’t what we planned, and you were looking forward to seeing me, but you like it at the Pennington’s don’t you?”

Athene had been shocked into silence.

“Athene Cariad, you still there?”

“Yeah,” she muttered.

“Um thanks for letting me know.”

“I love you darling, and I really am sorry.”

“I know,” she sighed, “I’m sorry too.”

“Look after yourself, promise me?”

“I always do,” he chuckled.

“I love you!”

“I love you too,” she mumbled as the line went dead.

Athene went back up to her dorm, where she found the rest of the gang. Harry and Charlie had just got in from tennis practise, Mark and Julie were doing dance stretches on the floor, and Anthony was reading on her bed.

Athene walked over to her bed and flopped down next to him. She snuggled up closer next to him and Anthony put his arm around her wordlessly.

Athene closed her eyes and took in Anthony’s smell of cotton lavender and old books. It was so familiar, but she still gelt like bursting into tears.

“What’s up Athene?” asked Anthony gently as he stroked her hair.

“Nothing,” she sighed.

“Well if you’re upset it’s clearly not nothing,” said Charlie simply.

“Uncle Davy’s having to stay in Ireland.”

Julie and Mark looked shocked, and Anthony held Athene closer. The only one who didn’t seem surprised was Harry. The IRA causing problems wasn’t news to him at the moment, his father was in the ministry of defence.

“I think we should take a night off from studying,” said Harry.

“What?” asked Anthony confused.

“Well, we need distracting,” agreed Julie.

“And we’ve got three whole weeks to study,” added Mark.

“And eight weeks until the exams,” said Charlie.

“So, I think we should take a night off,” finished Harry.

“But it’s nearly nine o’clock,” stammered Athene, “lights out is in about twenty minutes.”

“Oh yeah,” muttered Julie disappointed.

“Hang curfew,” whispered Harry conspiratorially beaming.

“We’re breaking out of Colditz?” asked Mark his eyes shining.

“Not out of the school no,” shrugged Harry, “but out of the boarding house.”

“We’re prefects!” exclaimed Athene.

“We cant do that,” agreed Anthony.

“And you both need a break right?” asked Charlie.

“Been studying far too hard,” agreed Julie.

“Well yeah maybe,” shrugged Anthony.

“We’ll meet in the corridor at ten, bring all your leftover tuck and swimming costumes.”

“Swimming costumes?” mouthed Charlie incredulously as the boys left the dorm.

At ten o’clock the girls in their pyjamas gathered up the last of their terms tuck, which was about a pound of assorted sweets. They went out into the corridor with their swimming costumes and the tuck. 

“This is so wrong,” muttered Athene.

“But exciting!” laughed Charlie.

The boys were already waiting for them, Harry, Anthony and Charlie had brought torches, and they were all wearing their school shoes with their pyjamas. They carefully crept past all the dorms trying not to wake the others up, especially not Matron or Mr Mitchell. 

Once they were out the grounds, they turned their torches on and ran across the rugby pitch, the swimming pool was on the other side of the grounds on the opposite side of the rugby pitch. 

If they got to the pool without getting caught, they’d be fine, it was miles away from any of the other school buildings.

“Why are we going swimming in the middle of the night?” asked Charlie as the girls and boys got changed behind separate tall hedges.

“I mean I’ve heard of people sneaking out of the dorms, my brothers used to do it all the time to go visit their friends in other houses or raid the kitchens. But why the bloody pool?”

“Why the hell not!” asked Harry as he finished changing.

“The last one ins a rotten egg!” shouted Mark as they ran over to the pool.

Athene laughed as she ran over to the pool with the others. It was bloody freezing, but after swimming a few lengths you didn’t even notice it.

It was the strangest night Athene ever had, swimming in the pitch dark the only light they had was form the stars shining above them which made it even more beautiful.

Mark and Julie seemed to be having an impromptu water fight splashing each other with the icy water. Harry and Charlie were racing each other back and forth doing links of the pool.

Anthony and Athene were floating at the deep end of the pool just talking, not thinking about work for once.

“Athene have you noticed something?” 

“What?” she laughed.

“We’re the same height.”

“No, we’re not, you’re over a foot taller than me!”

“We’re the same height at the moment though,” he pointed out tucking her hair behind her ear.

Athene giggled slightly, they had been having this problem for a while. The only way they could kiss properly was if Athene was standing on a small wall, or they were both sitting or lying down. But at the moment because they were floating they were the same height.

Anthony beamed softly as he brushed her wet hair off of her face and pulled her in close for a kiss.

“You taste like chlorine,” she giggled.

“So do you,” he laughed.

“Do we actually care though?”

“Nope,” they said together.

Athene and Anthony kissed for such a long time, that they actually forgot the rest of their friends were there.

“Hey Anthony! Cleopatra!” called Harry.

“Do you two lovebirds want any of this food?”

“We’re coming,” laughed Anthony pulling himself out of the pool and helping Athene out after him.

Anthony and Athene shared a towel to keep themselves warm whilst they ate sweets. Athene could safely say that the night that had started off so badly, had become the best night of the year so far. She’d gotten to spend time with her best friends and take some time off and they hadn’t opened a single textbook.


	54. Chapter 54

The Easter holidays had been nowhere near as fun as the Christmas ones. Even Mark and Julie knuckled down as the exams were only a few months away. The most exciting thing that happened over Easter, was that in late March Simon and Celia welcomed their son Michael into the family.

The exams took place over a week, and they had to papers on everything from Maths and Science to English and Home Economics.

On Wednesday evening Athene was trying to study in her dorm. She had already taken half her exams, but she still had to sit her Latin paper, the second maths paper, English literature exam, and her French oral examination, and the History paper.

She was lying on top of her bed memorizing History dates for the Civil War and trying to remember the line of succession. She already knew it all back to front, but it gave her something to think about rather than worrying about the exam.

“Athene,” said Anthony in a sing song voice sitting down on her bed.

“Unless it’s something important go away,” she muttered.

“Do you know what date it is today?” he asked beaming trying to stop himself from laughing.

“The tenth of June,” she sighed, “we’ve just sat our Science and English Language papers, and Home Economics practical.”

“Nothing else you can think of?” asked Anthony.

“Tenth of July doesn’t ring a bell?”

Athene look up from her book curiously and her face had a look of dawning comprehension.

“Oh My God,” she muttered under her breath.

“It’s my birthday isn’t it?” she laughed.

At this moment Mark, Julie, Harry, Charlie, Lucy and Lizzie came bursting into the room with a huge cake and laden down with birthday presents.

“Happy Birthday Athene!” beamed Lizzie and Lucy as they carried over the cake.

“Victoria Sponge?” asked Athene her face lighting up.

“What other kind of cake do we make for our favourite Welsh beauty?” asked Mark.

After cake, she opened her birthday presents. She’d got some delicious chocolates from London from Julie, Lucy and Lizzie had made the cake, and Charlie and Harry had got her a new rugby ball, Mark had gotten her a new pair of tennis shoes for when she wanted to dress down and Anthony had given her the usual photograph album, which included a picture of Athene and Anthony with Nicole and Michael. She had even been sent a bottle of perfume from Paris from Isabelle.

Julie was trying out Athene’s new perfume, which according to Lucy smelled like heaven encapsulated in a bottle, when Harry passed her one last box.

It was large box wrapped in brown paper and covered in postage stamps. 

Athene beamed as she took the box, she had a good feeling who this was from, he had told he would be sending something in the post.

She ripped off the paper from the box, and found a box full of straw, which had a letter lying on top.

Dear Athene,

Happy birthday Cariad! 

I can’t believe you’re sixteen years old, I still remember the day your Dad and I first met you. We had just got back from fighting in Egypt, but we had to go up to London before we went home so your Dad could get his medal. 

By the time we met you, you were already a month old, but you looked so tiny in Ruth’s arms. Ruth passed her to Danny, and I can safely say I have never seen your Dad happier. Not when he got his Victoria Cross, not when he came home at the end of the war in 1945, but when he held you for the first time. His face shone brighter than the Cardiff Christmas lights!

In this box is something very important that every young lady should have, especially one as beautiful as you!

Things are still pretty restless here, there’s still raids and attacks. We’re trying to stay on top of things though and arrest as many of them as we can. The other day though, one of the other Majors told me that some IRA members tried kidnapping their twelve-year-old son. They might have been trying to take the boy hostage so we would release some of their imprisoned members. Fortunately, though, the boy was fine, he didn’t get in the car with them and they drove off before anything else could happen and they got caught, but next time we might not be so lucky.

You have no idea how much I love you, and how I proud I am of you!

Good luck on the last of your exams, 

Love always, Uncle Davy.

Athene looked back down at the letter slightly confused, it was the regular birthday greetings apart from that last paragraph. She couldn’t believe how bad things were!

“Athene!” called Mark pulling out of her own thoughts.

“You need to open the box.”

“Oh yeah,” said Athene shaking herself out of her own thoughts.

She pulled the straw out of the packing case and found an intricately carved wooden box. 

Athene could now understand why the box had been so heavy on her lap, it had a wooden jewellery box. It had flowers engraved onto the honey-coloured wood of the box, and the two doors of the box were covered in intricate vines and flowers.

There was a small metal clasp holding the two doors together, which Athene opened. On the other side of each door were mirrors, and inside the box itself was rows of wooden drawers for putting all her jewellery.

“It’s beautiful,” breathed Julie as she looked at the box.

Julie had her own jewellery box, and it was much larger and more expensive than Athene’s. Her parents had bought it for her in Harrods last Christmas, but although Julie’s had cost a lot more, but the simplicity of Athene’s box actually in some way made it more beautiful.

“Happy Birthday my beautiful girl,” beamed Anthony kissing her on the lips. 

When he kissed her, he tasted of strawberry jam, cream, and icing sugar from the birthday cake which made his kiss even sweeter and more perfect than usual.

“Now then how about I test you on that good old line of succession?” asked Anthony picking up her history notes.

Athene loved how well Anthony knew her, he knew that as they had their History exam tomorrow morning she would much rather revise together than have a full on birthday party.


	55. Chapter 55

Athene and the other Upper Fifth students were lined up outside the exam hall, they had already taken their English Literature and their second Maths papers that morning. One more exam and it would all be over.

Anthony was pacing back and forth reciting to himself.

“Mensa, mensa, mensam, mensae, menase, mensa. Mensae, mensae, mensas, mensarum, mensis, mensis.”

“Would you shut up about those bloody table’s already Tony!” groaned Harry pulling at his tie.

“I’m trying to keep myself calm,” muttered Anthony.

“But you’re freaking the rest of us out,” said Charlie.

“Just ignore them Anthony,” said Athene gently, “it will all be over soon!”

“Hmmm,” muttered Anthony as he paced back and forth going over his noun declensions again.

“Right,” said Mr Mitchell coming out of the exam hall, “you all know the drill by now.”

“Everyone come in and take your assigned seats, there will be no talking. If anyone tries to cheat they will be withdrawn from the exam.”

Everyone filed in silently leaving their notes outside of the room, just taking their pencil cases with them.

“Please remember to fill out your name and student numbers clearly in the top right-hand corner of your answer booklets.”

“This is your GCE O Level Latin examination paper; you have two hours.”

“You may turn over your papers,” he muttered checking his watch, “now!”

Anthony adjusted his glasses on his nose properly and looked down at his question paper. He could do this, he had nothing to worry about.

For two hours, the room was full of sixty students frantically scribbling out their answers to all the questions, as Mr Mitchell and Mr Jones patrolled the desks making sure people weren’t cheating.

At exactly half past three, Mr Mitchell came back up to the front of the room.

“Your time is up, if you could all please finish your last question and pass your answer booklets to the front of the room, where Mr Jones and I will collect them.”

They collected the papers and the Upper Fifth students looked at him nervously as Mr Mitchell put the papers away in a sealed envelope.

“Your last exam is finished; you are free to go.”

There was a collective sigh of relief throughout the room and the students started talking cheerfully amongst themselves as they left the room.

Graham and Malcom had already headed down to raid the kitchens for a huge midnight feast, and they needed someone to go into the village to get enough bottles of ginger beer for all fifteen of them. They had decided it was probably best to have Athene and Anthony ask Mr Mitchell if they could go to the village, as they were the most trustworthy and ‘responsible.’

Anthony and Athene were ecstatic. They had just spent the last five months studying in their rooms, and even a walk down to the village shop seemed like a huge experience at the moment.

“Mr Mitchell,” asked Athene somewhat cautiously, “can Anthony and I go down to village?”

Mr Mitchell looked at her curiously smiling.

“Has this got something to do with the midnight feast that I’m ‘not supposed to know about?’

Anthony laughed nervously.

“Maybe,” he muttered.

“You have permission, but be back by five o’clock, and don’t come back with any alcohol or cigarettes.”

“Sir!” said Anthony in outrage, “it’s as if you hardly know us!”

“We’d never buy booze!” agreed Athene.

“Hmm yes well, if Mark and Harry went to do the shopping though, I might find myself checking their shopping bags to make sure the beer was of the non-alcoholic ginger variety.”

“And we wouldn’t blame you sir,” said Anthony.

“Get on with you the pair of you,” he chuckled.

Anthony put his arm around Athene, and they walked down to the village together. They hadn’t had time off like this alone together when neither of them were working in nearly a month. 

The sun was streaming down their backs, and Anthony was carrying the two jumpers. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect. It was only a few miles into the village, so they were there in twenty minutes. They went into the greengrocers and bought a dozen bottles of ginger beer and a dozen of lemonade.

As they walked out of the shop, Athene noticed that there was a car in the road outside. It wasn’t strange that there was a car, it was just slightly strange that there was a car driving around this small country village at four o’clock on a Friday afternoon when most people were still at work.

They were both carrying huge crates of bottles back up to school for the midnight feast. But Athene began to feel nervous when she realised that the car was following them out of the village, she kept on checking over her shoulder, but the car was following them about ten metres behind.

“Do you think Harry’s going to try and organise another moonlight pool party?” asked Anthony as they started to trudge their way up the hill.

“Anthony,” she mumbled trying not to move her lips.

“When I say run, run.”

“What are you talking about?” chuckled Anthony who was in a brilliant mood having finished his last exam.

“Run!” she yelled dropping the crate of lemonade bottles by the side of the road and trying to run up the road.

But it was too late. The black car that had been following them for the last mile sped up suddenly and pulled in front of them, blocking her escape route.


	56. Chapter 56

Four young men got out of the car, they were all quite tall and well-built and were dressed in jeans and leather jackets. The tallest of the four men had dark hair and eyes and was smoking a cigarette.

“Do you think this is the one Seamus?” asked one of the men.

“Looks like the girl in the photograph,” said Seamus quietly, who was the one smoking the cigarette and seemed to be the leader of the group.

Athene looked at the four men nervously. She had lived in lots of parts of Great Britain, and those accents definitely weren’t English, but they weren’t Welsh either. Unless she was very much mistaken, those four men were Irish.

“What is going on?” asked Anthony warily.

“What’s going on is,” said Seamus, “that is Athene Richards.”

“We don’t know who you are though kid,” said a man with red hair who was glaring at Anthony.

Two of the men walked towards Athene and grabbed one of her arms each, they had a very strong grip and Athene was terrified.

“How do you know who I am, and what do you want from me?” stammered Athene.

“How we know who you are is our business,” said Seamus who was clearly the spokesperson.

“And what we want from you, is Major David Llewelyn.”

The two men that were gripping onto Athene’s arms started to pull her towards the car.

“No!” yelled Anthony rushing in front of the car and blocking the door.

“She’s not going anywhere!” he said shaking his head.

“You’ll have to get through me first!”

“Don’t be stupid Anthony,” sobbed Athene tears running down her cheeks.

“Listen to your little girlfriend kid,” said Seamus ominously.

“Or what!” yelled Anthony full of courage.

“Or else she gets it,” said the man with the red hair pulling a pistol out of his jacket pocket.

Athene had been struggling against her two captors had now gone limp, Anthony had gone as white as a sheet.

“Be careful Brendan,” said Seamus quietly, “we can’t hurt the hostage or she’s worthless.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t hurt her boyfriend though,” said Brendan beaming maniacally and now pointing the gun at Anthony with his finger on the trigger.

Anthony had never been so scared in his life. There was a man grinning madly as they pointed a gun at Anthony with his finger on the trigger. There was another two men with a death grip on Athene. He wasn’t strong enough to fight them off, Harry might be, but he certainly wasn’t.

Seamus was calmly finishing off his cigarette and looking almost bored. 

He knew that there was literally nothing he could do, he was going to have to move away from the car door, otherwise they were going to shoot him.

Anthony edged away from the car door slowly not taking his eye off Brendan who was still aiming at him.

“There’s a good lad,” said Seamus patting him on the shoulder.

Seamus nodded at Brendan who seemed disappointed as he put his pistol back away in his leather jacket pocket.

“Now then,” said Seamus calmly, “your friend Athene is going to get in this car with us. 

“You are going to go up to your school and ring the army and tell them what’s happened. You tell them that they will find Athene at the Worlds End, then we’re going to have a little talk.”

“Do you understand?”

Anthony nodded shaking his head slightly.

“There’s a good lad. Boys, get the girl in the car!”

The two men who had been gripping onto Athene half threw her into the back of the car before sitting down on either side of her. Brendan and Seamus got into the front of the car and Seamus gave Anthony a brief wave as the car drove away.

Anthony was in a state of shock as he watched the car pull away. His girlfriend had just been kidnapped right in front of him, and he hadn’t done anything about it. If the army didn’t find her soon, she might get seriously hurt!

He shook himself out of it as he pelted back up the hill to the school, running as fast as his skinny legs would carry him. 

He nearly crashed into Harry and Charlie as he ran back into the school.

“What the hell!” shouted Charlie.

“Tony!” yelled Harry, “slow down mate!”

Anthony stopped running and clutched a huge stitch on his side.

Harry and Charlie ran over to him, if Anthony had been running there must be something seriously wrong. Anthony never ran, unless they were on the rugby pitch and Mr Davies was chasing him.

“Anthony,” said Harry as they caught up with him, “what’s going on?”

“Where’s Athene?” asked Charlie.

“Athene,” said Anthony breathlessly, “kidnapped. Drove away. Had gun.”

“What did he say?” asked Charlie confused.

“He said that Athene’s been driven away in a car by men with guns!” said Harry his eyes popping out.

“Do you know anything else Anthony?” asked Harry carefully putting a hand on his shoulder.

“They had Irish accents,” said Anthony as he got his breath back, “there was four of them.”

“They wanted to get to her Uncle Davy.”

“I’ve got to ring the army!” shouted Anthony suddenly remembering.

“It’s ok Anthony, we’ll sort this,” muttered Harry shaking his head.

“Did they say anything else?” asked Charlie nervously.

“They said they’d find her at the World’s End.”

“Where the hell is that?” muttered Charlie.

“Damned if I know,” sighed Harry running his fingers through his hair.


	57. Chapter 57

“So, you five are trying to tell me,” stammered Mr Mitchell slamming his head against the desk, “that Athene and Anthony go to the village for fizzy pop, and Athene got kidnapped by the IRA?”

“Yes sir,” said Anthony breathlessly.

“This isn’t a very cruel prank?”

“No sir,” said Harry.

“Right,” sighed Mr Mitchell.

“Julie, you take Mark to the sick bay, he looks like he might faint.”

Julie nodded and escorted the usually lively and excitable Mark, who was speechless and pale as a ghost to go and find matron.

“Anthony,” he continued, “you ring the Aldershot base.”

“I need to tell the headmaster and find Mr Davies.”

“Why Mr Davies?” asked Charlie, “he’s not in her house.”

“He’s got military experience,” explained Harry, “ex-army.”

“You can use my phone,” he said on his way out, “more privacy.”

Anthony picked up the phone and asked to put through to the Aldershot base, and waited for the phone to be answered.

“Hello,” said the man on the other end of the phone, “you are through to the Aldershot Military base, how may we be of assistance?”

“It’s my girlfriend,” Anthony stammered just happy for the phone to have been picked up, “she’s been kidnapped.”

“Who by,” said the voice almost tiredly, thinking it was just another prank.

“The IRA.”

“You girlfriend has been kidnapped by the IRA?” 

“Look, if this is one the kids from the grammar school please stop blocking the line. We are a military base, we have enough to deal with without your stupid jokes.”

“Give that here,” said Harry exasperated.

“Look!” said Harry firmly down the phone, “this isn’t a prank!”

“My name is Harry Knowles, and my father is in the Ministry of Defence. My friend’s life is in danger, if you don’t pull yourself together I will have to report you!”

“Yes sir,” stammered the private on the other end of the phone, “sorry sir.”

“As Anthony said, our friend has been kidnapped by the IRA.”

“How long ago was this?”

“About half an hour,” said Anthony.

“About half an hour ago, a mile away from St. Christopher’s school.”

“Right,” said the private writing all that down, “can I have the girls name please?”

“Athene Richards,” said Harry, “ward of Major David Llewelyn. They both live at your base.”

“They’ve taken Athene!” stammered the young private. He had been at the Aldershot base for a couple of years, and Athene sometimes came to talk to him during the holidays.

“Yes,” sighed Harry, relieved that they finally understood the seriousness of the situation.

“She got taken by four guys with Irish accents, in a black car.”

“Ok,” said the private jotting all that down, “anything else?”

“They gave a clue to her whereabouts, you’ll find her at the Worlds End,” said Harry.

“At what?” asked the private.

“I’m just as stumped as you,” sighed Harry.

“Right, well thank you for calling, if you have any more information, please call back.”

Anthony, Charlie and Harry went up to the girl’s dorm to try and think properly. The army didn’t seem to have any better idea about where she was than they did.

“We’ll find her at the Worlds End,” muttered Charlie over and over again.

“I thought I might find you lot in here,” sighed Mr Davies sitting down on Charlie’s bed.

“Any more info yet Harry?”

“Not yet no sir,” sighed Harry as he got out a map so he could try and figure out where Athene was.

“I just wish we knew where she was,” exclaimed Charlie, “then we could do something about it!”

“What could you do about it?” asked Antony, “you’re sixteen.”

“And she’s deadly with a gun,” said Mr Davies.

“She’s even better than me,” muttered Harry.

“Well, I’m afraid, I’ve promised Mitch that whatever happens tonight you lot are staying here.”

“Oh, come on!” groaned Charlie.

“We’ve been training for five years; we can handle ourselves.”

“If we can’t help tonight then what was the point in his even training?”

“You could lose me my job!” said Mr Davies.

“What’s more important!” shouted Charlie, “your job or Athene!”

“We don’t even know where she is,” said Mr Davies shaking his head.

“Um actually I think I might,” said Harry quietly.

“What?” asked Mr Davies snapping his head around to the map.

“She’s not at the Worlds End,” said Harry, “she’s at Worlds End.”

“What?” asked Charlie.

“Worlds End,” nodded Harry, “it’s a tiny village, near Newbury.”

“How far away is it?” asked Mr Davies looking at the map.

“Just under forty miles, I’d say about an hour in the car.” 

“It would take a while for the army to get all their stuff together,” muttered Mr Davies.

“Maybe I should be a sergeant for just one more night.”

“What are you thinking?” asked Charlie her face lighting up.

“I’m thinking that Tony rings the army, and you two and a couple of the lads come with me to Worlds End and stall.”

“We’re going to help?” beamed Charlie. 

“You bet,” said Mr Davies, “Charlie, you go get the riffles, Harry you figure out the route, I’ll go get Graham and Malcom.”

“And whatever you do,” he said firmly.

“Don’t tell Mitch!” they all said in unison.

Within five minutes, Malcom, Graham, and Charlie were in the back of Mr Davies’ car with the riffles and Harry was in the front helping with the directions as Mr Davies drove. 

Anthony managed to get the army on the phone, and they got out of the school without Mr Mitchell being any the wiser.


	58. Chapter 58

Harry couldn’t believe how early it was. So much had happened it the last few hours. It was only seven o’clock in the evening. The sun was still high in the sky and would be for a few more hours. 

He was trying to keep his wits about him, but all he could think about was that they might be too late. Rule number one of taking a hostage was not to kill them, but that doesn’t that they weren’t going to hurt her. What if they touched her? What if they did more than that? What if they were too late?

Harry had to shake himself out of it, as Mr Davies parked the car by a sign saying Worlds End.

“You three stay there,” said Mr Davies looking to the back of the car, “Harry, you come with me, we need to look for more clues.”

“Righto,” nodded Harry as Charlie passed them each a riffle.

Harry and Mr Davies spent several minutes looking around looking for certain clues, searching every last inch of the surrounding area.

“I think I’ve got something,” said Harry pulling a folded piece of paper out of a hollow tree.

“You’ll find her at the old barn, one mile north,” he read.

Harry felt deeply relieved, if they had found the message, that meant that they were in the right place, and it might not be too late for Athene.

“Come on,” said Mr Davies putting his arm around Harry as they got the others out of the car.

It was a good thing that they had got changed out of their uniforms after the exams, otherwise their group would have looked even stranger. As they were it was still four sixteen-year olds in jeans t-shirts walking through the countryside carrying riffles, accompanied by a man in his late forties who was checking their direction with a compass.

“That’s it,” said Mr Davies nodding at an abandoned barn in the distance. There was a black car parked in a nearby field.

“Right ok,” he said pulling them all into a huddle. 

“Here’s the plan, we tell them that I am Sergeant Davies, and I have come here to discuss their terms, and that there are more people on the way.”

“won’t they hurt you though sir?” asked Graham, “you’re not their hostage.”

“If I go in unarmed, they might think I mean peace,” he explained.

“You four, guard the door and keep quiet ready to burst in. When you hear the code word, Dragon, you four burst into the room with your riffles, ready to fire.”

“I want to make one thing clear,” he said firmly, “do not fire unless you have to. Don’t fire first!”

“Malcom, if anything goes wrong, run to the phone box a mile back in the village and call the army!”

“Yes sir,” nodded Malcom.

Graham and Malcom nodded somewhat nervously, Charlie gave a firm nod, and Harry inclined his head slightly. 

“Let’s go.”

The five of them trekked down the path to the old barn. Keeping as quiet as they possibly could. Mr Davies gestured them all to hide out of sight for a few seconds as he listened.

“They’re not coming Seamus!” groaned Brendan.

“Have patience Brendan,” said Seamus coolly, “it’s still early, give them time.”

“And if they don’t come,” said Brendan, “can we kill her then?”

“No, you can’t kill her,” said Seamus getting annoyed at his comrade.

“We could send them a message,” suggested Henry.

“We’ve already sent them a message,” said Brendan angrily.

“I meant like we could send them a lock of her hair, if they don’t listen to our terms, we could cut it all off.”

“That’s actually a pretty good idea,” said Brendan impressed.

“Why can’t we just let her go?” asked the last man. He didn’t sound hardly any older than any of the boys at school, he couldn’t be much more than eighteen.

“She’s just a kid, what’s she done wrong?”

“She hasn’t done anything wrong Connor,” said Seamus, “but if you want your Dad out of prison, we need some leverage, hence kidnapping the girl.”

“But it didn’t work Seamus,” said Brendan through gritted teeth.

“They haven’t shown up!”

“Have patience,” Seamus said quietly, “it’s only been a few hours.”

Mr Davies nodded and knocked on the door firmly.

The four men stopped talking instantly.

“There’s somebody there,” whispered Henry.

Brendan came to the door holding a pistol behind his back.

“Who are you and what do you want?”

“Sergeant Evan Davies. I found your note in the village a mile back, I’m looking for Athene Richards.”

“Why have they only sent a sergeant?” asked Brendan suspiciously, “and why aren’t you in uniform?”

“Let him in Brendan!” said Seamus.

Brendan let Mr Davies into the room still glaring at him and shut the barn door after him.

“Shh!” said Harry putting his finger up to his lips as they walked around to the door and waited for the signal.

Harry put his ear to the door to listen.

“Mmhhmm,” mumbled Athene through a gag as Mr Davies came into the barn.

Athene hadn’t been expecting anyone to come, certainly not this soon, let alone her sports teacher!

“It’s ok Athene, you’re going to be alright now,” he said gently.

“What makes you think that?” smirked Brendan.

Seamus gave Brendan a meaningful look, and Brendan shut up instantly.

“Where are the others, and why aren’t you in uniform?” asked Seamus.

“I’m not in uniform because I came incognito, the others are on their way. I’m a close family friend, and I had to check Athene was ok.”

Seamus seemed to think that this was a satisfactory answer and nodded curtly.

“So what is it that you want?” asked Mr Davies.

“We want our friends to be released from prison,” said Brendan.

“Including Connor’s Dad Liam O’Donoghue,” agreed Henry.

“And let me guess,” sighed Mr Davies, “they were interned for being involved in suspected terrorist activities?”

“That’s right,” said Seamus.

“So your plan to get your comrades released from imprisonment because of terrorist activities, is to commit an act of terrorism by kidnapping a young girl?”

“Good,” nodded Brendan, “sounds like we’re on the same page!”

“Well, Athene means a lot to me, we’re both Welsh, and us dragons have got to stick together!”

“Did he say dragon?” whispered Graham.

Harry nodded and burst his way through the door holding out his riffle followed by Charlie, Graham and Malcom.


	59. Chapter 59

“What the fuck!” yelled Brendan.

Harry could see Athene being held onto to by one of the two younger men, either Henry or Connor, and she was gagged, and her wrists were tied together. At the moment though, her eyebrows were raised in a look of surprise.

“This is your backup?” asked Seamus incredulously.

“But they’re just kids!”

“They’re older than they look,” said Mr Davies warningly, “they’re new recruits.”

Harry, Charlie, Malcom and Graham were all pointing their riffles at one of the men with their fingers on the triggers ready to fire if they had to.

Brendan ran over to Athene and grabbed her.

“Give her here Connor,” he said gruffly getting out his pistol

“If any of you lot move, she gets it,” said Brendan pointing his pistol at Athene’s head, preparing to blow her brains out.

“You lot do look pretty young,” muttered Seamus curiously, “and none of you are in uniform.”

“How do we know you lot are army?” snapped Brendan glaring at them.

Athene rolled her eyes and remembered what her Dad had taught her when she was a girl. They had tied her wrists together, but nobody had bothers with her feet.

She glared at Brendan who was gripping onto her jumper and pointing a gun at her. She turned towards him and kneed him in the groin.

“Jesus Christ!” shouted Brendan in pain, letting go off Athene for just a second.

But a second was all she needed, she ducked away from him, and ran straight out of the barn her wrists still tied together.

“You little bitch!” yelled Brendan as he and Seamus pulled out their guns and ran out after her.

They aimed rapid fire at Athene as she ran away but was too fast for them and ducked behind a tree so they couldn’t get her.

Brendan tried aiming again but had run out of bullets.

“Shit!” he muttered looking behind him.

Connor and Henry had already been taken hostage by Mr Davies and Graham, and Henry and Connor had their hands up in surrender. Malcom had given Mr Davies his gun and was running to go call the army as he was the fastest runner.

Charlie was getting dangerously close to Seamus, pointing her gun at him, ready to fire, and Harry was headed his way.

But Brendan wasn’t going down without a fight. He might not have any bullets left but they still had their hostage.

He ran around the tree and picked up the teenage girl who was breathless from running. Athene was defenceless, she still had her wrists tied together.

He dragged her by the scruff of the neck from behind the tree and looked at Harry.

He pulled Athene in front of him grinning and pointing his pistol at Athene’s head with his other hand.

“If you want me, you’ll have to get the girl too,” he said laughing maniacally.

Athene looked at Harry with a look of desperation in her eyes. She looked like she was close to tears, she was exhausted, and she just wanted this to be over.

Harry kept on running over to protect his friend.

“One more move and she gets to meet her maker!”

“But you wouldn’t do that,” said Harry shaking his head.

“Rule number one of kidnapping, don’t kill your hostage, otherwise they’re worthless.”

“I think you’re bluffing!”

Brendan looked at Harry with his bright green eyes for a fraction of a second, before letting go of Athene and legging for it.

Harry carefully aimed his riffle and aimed at Brendan and pulled the trigger.

His aim was true, and Harry’s bullet hit Brendan right in the leg slowing him down just enough to make a difference.

Harry sprinted over to Brendan and tackled him to the ground and took Brendan’s pistol from him.

“It’s over!” 

“You can’t run away, because you’re injured, and I’ve taken your gun.”

“The games up! Do you surrender?”

“Oh, for Christs sake!” muttered Brendan under his breath and putting his arms in the air in surrender.

Harry walked Brendan over to the other prisoners who were being guarded by Graham and Mr Davies. 

Charlie had helped Athene off with her gag and had just undone the rope from her wrists.

“You ok Athene?” asked Harry as he walked past with Brendan.

“Yeah,” Athene assured him smiling tiredly, “I’m fine.”

“Right!” said Mr Davies as Harry came over with Brendan.

“Move it you lot!”

“Aye aye Serge!” said Graham giving Mr Davies a brief salute.

Graham, Mr Davies, and Harry escorted the four men the mile back to the village still holding their rifles up. Brendan glared at Harry the whole way. Charlie followed them with her arm around Athene.

As they got back to Worlds End, Malcom was leaning against the village phone box, and the army truck was just pulling up.

A captain and about ten privates jumped out of the truck, before it even stopped moving fully.

Harry, Charlie, Malcom and Graham all stood to attention and saluted the captain.

“At ease men,” he nodded.

“And lady,” he added noticing Charlie.

Charlie beamed slightly as she put her arm back around Athene.

“I’m Captain Smith, you are relieved of your duty.”

“Thank you, sir,” said Harry giving the captain another brief salute as the privates shepherded the four rebels into the truck at gunpoint.

“Are you all alright?” asked the Captain looking around at the five kids.

“We’re fine,” said Graham beaming, who had actually quite enjoyed their daring adventure.

“Athene?” he asked nervously.

“I’m fine really,” she muttered.

“What happened?” he asked Mr Davies.

“It’s a pretty long story,” laughed Mr Davies.

“Maybe you can tell me on the way back to the school to drop these kids off?” said Captain Smith smiling.

“Sounds like a plan,” said Mr Davies shaking his hand.

“Sir!” begged Graham, “can we ride in the truck?”

“Up front with the driver?” agreed Malcom beaming.

“Maybe another time boys,” chuckled Mr Davies.

“We’re escorting you back to the school,” said Captain Smith, “it’s on the way back to the base.”

“I don’t have a problem with it if you don’t.”

“Oh, go one then,” said Mr Davies giving in.

Malcom and Graham rushed off to go sit next to the driver before Mr Davies could change his mind.

Athene got in the back of Mr Davies’ car between Harry and Charlie. Harry and Charlie both had their arms around her protectively. Mr Davies caught Captain Smith up on the events of the evening as they drove back to the school.

The sun was slowly setting as they drove, and by the time they got back to St. Christopher’s, it was already half past nine in the evening. That didn’t mean that anybody was asleep though.  
The whole of Mr Mitchell’s house was wide awake, wating for them to get back. Mr Mitchell and Mr Grainger were waiting for them all at the school gates when they pulled in.

Mr Mitchell looked deeply relieved and had clearly been panicking for the last three hours. Mr Grainger though looked livid. Athene had never seen her Headmaster look so angry, his eyes were full of disappointment and he was shaking his head at them as they all got out of the car, and Captain Smith helped Malcom and Graham down from the van.

“What the hell did you think you were doing Davies!” shouted Mr Grainger.

“Taking four kids with you to face terrorists?”

“They’re fine,” said Mr Davies.

“That was just luck,” said Mr Grainger.

“Look,” sighed Mr Mitchell, “it’s late, and we’re all just glad you’re back safely.”

“Be that as it may,” said Mr Grainger calmly but firmly.

“There must be consequences,” he said looking at them all in turn, and lingering on Mr Davies.

“I’ll see you all in my office, ten o’clock tomorrow morning.”

“Now go on,” said Mr Mitchell coaxingly, “get to bed.”

“I can’t believe we’re in trouble,” muttered Graham as they walked back to the dorm.

“We were saving her life,” agreed Malcom.

“We were also four sixteen year olds facing terrorists,” sighed Charlie, “it could have gone much worse!”

“But we’re fine,” said Graham.

“That’s beside the point,” said Harry shaking his head, “lets just not worry about this until tomorrow.”

When they got back to the Upper Fifth boys’ dorm, the whole year was waiting up for them. Mark looked like he had fainted and was lying down on his bed, with a cold wet flannel on his face, and Julie was tending to him.

Two of the other boys, had been trying to restrain Anthony, who had tried running after Athene ten times now.

“Graham!” exclaimed Lizzie throwing herself at him as he walked in.

“Thank god you’re ok,” she muttered as he held her close.

“We’re fine,” chuckled Graham, “we’re all fine.”

“Athene!” yelled Anthony rushing over to her and lifting her in the air.

“Anything could have happened to you,” he sobbed stroking her hair, “you could have been hurt, you could have died, you could have.”

“She’s fine Tony,” assured Malcom.

“No, she’s not,” stammered Anthony looking at Athene’s wrists.

“What happened to your hands sweetheart?”

“It’s just rope burn,” she whispered, “I’m fine.”

“Athene, I love you so much, and I am never letting you out of my sight ever again.”

He kissed her on the forehead lightly and held her close. The longest night of their lives so far, was finally over.


	60. Chapter 60

Athene woke up from a deep dreamless sleep. 

Her whole body ached, particularly her wrists and even though she had just been asleep she was exhausted. But she also felt safe and warm. That probably had something to do with the fact that she was being held close in Anthony’s arms. She always felt safe in his arms.

She opened her eyes and looked around, and realised that they were still at school, yet they were sharing a bed! They weren’t even in the girl’s dorm!

She also realised that the other four girls where in here as well, Charlie was curled up next to Harry, Julie was lying down at the end of Mark’s bed, Lizzie was sharing with Graham, and Malcom appeared to have slept on the floor having lent his bed to Lucy for the night.

What in the world was going on?

Then she remembered why they had all wanted to stick together last night. What she had hoped had just been a nightmare had actually happened. She had been kidnapped by the IRA yesterday evening, and if it hadn’t been for Harry, Charlie, Malcom, Graham and Mr Davies coming to save her, she wouldn’t even be here.

“Athy?” whispered Anthony realising that Athene was awake.

“You alright sweetheart?”

“I’m fine,” she stammered looking around nervously, frantically searching the overcrowded room, and rubbing her wrists which were still sore from the rope the day before.

“Athy?” he asked pulling on his glasses, “what’s wrong?”

“Last night,” she muttered looking at Anthony but trying not to wake up the others, “that wasn’t a nightmare was it?”

“Um no,” said Anthony biting his lip, “it wasn’t.”

Athene closed her eyes for a second and images flashed before her eyes, being forced into the car and driving away from Anthony, a man with red hair pointing a gun at her grinning menacingly.

Athene’s body started to shake and she burst into hysterical tears. She couldn’t believe she was crying but she just couldn’t help it!

“It’s alright darling,” soothed Anthony softly holding her close and stroking her hair.

“It’s all over now, I’m here. You’re alright.”

“I was so scared,” she sobbed, “I thought it was a nightmare!”

“I know,” he muttered quietly, “I know, you’re alright now.”

“What time is it?” grumbled Harry who had been woken up by Anthony and Athene.

“Half past nine,” said Malcom who was stretching his body having slept on the floor all night.

“I think we need a lie in,” yawned Graham getting further under the covers with Lizzie.

“As tempting as that sounds,” sighed Harry, “we’re due in Grainger’s office in half an hour.”

“Oh my God,” muttered Malcom, “we haven’t been punished yet.”

“Punished?” asked Mark, “what are you talking about?”

The combination between the sun coming through the window, and the whispered conversations had woken up the rest of the dorm.

“Grainger’s really pissed,” said Charlie.

“Hem hem,” coughed Anthony.

“Sorry, I mean Grainger’s really knarcked off,” she said.

“But you saved Athene’s life,” said Julie.

“By risking our own,” grumbled Graham as he got out of bed.

“Well how angry was he?” asked Anthony

“Furious,” said Athene flinching slightly.

“The worst that can happen is that we get expelled,” said Malcom shaking his head.

“And the least that’s going to happen, is we all get suspended until the end of term, and Charlie and I lose our sports captainships.”

“But Mr Davies is definitely getting fired,” muttered Charlie.

There was cires of indignation from throughout the room.

“They must be crazy!”

“No!”

“I mean I don’t like the guy, and I don’t like Rugby,” shrugged Mark, “but that no reason to fire the man.”

“He put all our lives in danger last night,” said Harry firmly.

“Now get out of here girls, we’ve got to get fresh uniforms on before we meet with the head.”

The girls left the room, and Lizzie and Lucy both went back to bed, Julie and Mark went off to do some dance practise.

Athene rather than changing into her pyjamas however, was redoing her hair and changing into a freshly ironed uniform.

“Athene,” said Charlie confused, “you’re not in trouble, you don’t have to come.”

“I want to,” said Athene as she tied off her plaits.

“But why?” asked Charlie.

Heaven knows that she didn’t want to go to this rollicking and didn’t understand why Athene wanted to come as well.

“It’s my fault you’re all in trouble,” said Athene, “if I hadn’t been kidnapped none of you lot would have gone after me. I might be able to change Mr Grainger’s mind.”

“I doubt it,” muttered Charlie thoroughly unconvinced.

“It’s worth a try,” said Athene.

“You ready Charlie?” asked Harry poking his head around the door.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” she sighed.

Harry put his arm around Charlie’s waist and a very sombre Malcom and Graham walked behind them, followed by Athene.

Anthony waved them off from his dorm, wishing them all luck.

It was like some very strange kind of funeral procession, apart from of course, nobody had died. But seeing as by the time they got back to the dorm, four of them would probably be expelled, it was funeral of sorts.

As they reached the headmasters office, Harry knocked firmly on the office door.

“Come!” called Mr Grainger from the opposite side of the door.

“Here goes nothing,” whispered Malcom as they all walked in.

Mr Davies was already sitting in the office, wearing a suit and tie of all things. Usually Mr Davies was in his sports kit, he only tended to wear a suit for church, or Remembrance Day. But there he was wearing a suit and pulling uncomfortably at his tie. 

Mr Mitchell was also there as well minus his usual smile. He was leaning against the wall with his hands in his jacket pockets, and he looked very awkward.

“Sit!” said Mr Grainger firmly.

There were no arguments, and they all sat down without saying a word. There weren’t enough seats to go around, so Athene, Charlie and Malcom sat, whilst Harry and Graham stood behind them.

“Before we get started,” began Mr Grainger, “I would like to point how reckless you all were last night. You in particular Davies, you could have all died!”

Mr Davies nodded slowly and stared down at his shoes.

“I understand why you did what you did, I do have some empathy. Your friend Athene here had been kidnapped. I understand that you wanted to help, but you should have just rung the army, told them what you knew and left them to deal with the criminals.”

Charlie opened her mouth for a second, to say that Mr Davies was a professional.

“Mr Davies is retired,” said Mr Grainger firmly as if he had just read her mind, “he is no longer Sergeant Davies, he is Mr Davies sports master.”

“In fact, if anything Davies, the fact that you are ex-army makes this worse. You knew what you were up against the dangers at stake and you still took four kids with you!”

“I know they’re in the cadets, but they are not soldiers, they could have gotten hurt. You could have all died!”

“I know that,” muttered Mr Davies somewhat foolishly.

“But you’re all safe,” said Mr Mitchell butting in, “nobody got hurt.”

“Except for that one IRA guy,” said Mr Davies.

“Good shot by the way Harry!” said Mr Davies turning around to face Harry beaming wildly.

“Shooting him in the leg, stopping him from running away. Bloody genius!”

“Hem hem!” coughed Mr Grainger.

“May we continue?”

“Yes of course,” said Mr Davies, “sorry sir.”

“I was going to expel you all, and you Mr Davies were going to be out of a job. And I still might.”

Athene looked confused, had Mr Mitchell just used the past tense, they weren’t going to get expelled?

“I got a phone call from Captain Smith this morning,” he continued.

“He told me, that you five dealt with the situation very well last night. He and his men couldn’t have done it better themselves. You managed to take the rebels prisoner without anyone getting hurt unnecessarily. But most importantly, Athene the hostage didn’t get hurt.”

“He also added,” said Mr Grainger quietly, “that when you shot that man in the leg Harry it was ingenious and is exactly what he would have done himself.”

Harry’s mouth dropped open slightly. Was he mishearing things, or was Mr Grainger complimenting him?

“I’m not saying that what you did was right, but you went about it the right way. You didn’t go in there guns blazing or use any unnecessary force. That was very mature of you.”

“You are not getting expelled, and you Mr Davies still have a job. You’re not getting suspended either. But if any of you put another toe out of line, you’ll be out of here before you have time to say unfair.”

“Yes sir!” said Charlie nodding frantically hardly believing her ears.

“The four of you will serve detention with me for every night for the next week. You won’t be doing lines; we’re going to be looking through A Level papers and syllabuses.”

Malcom and Graham looked disgusted as if that was somehow worse that lines.

“It will be boring but useful, you need to pick your new subjects anyway,” he explained.

Athene put her hand in the air somewhat nervously.

“Yes Athene?” asked Mr Grainger.

“Can I join them for those detentions.”

“You’re in trouble Athene,” said Mr Mitchell, “you haven’t done anything wrong; you don’t even need to be here.”

“Oh, I know, but it could help me pick my subjects.”

“You have got to be kidding me,” said Charlie shaking her head but still smiling at her friend.

“In that case of course you can join us,” said Mr Grainger chuckling slightly, “and Anthony can join as well if he likes.”

“Thank you, sir,” she beamed.

“I’ll see you all at six o’clock tonight,” said Mr Grainger, “you’re all dismissed.”

Malcom, Graham and Mr Davies almost sprinted from the room, trying to get away before he could change his mind.

Harry put his arm back around Charlie and they both looked much more relieved. Harry Charlie and Athene started to head back to the dorm to tell Anthony the good news.

“Oh, and Athene,” called Mr Mitchell as they left, “call your uncle, he’s worried about you.”

When they got back to the dorm, Athene Harry and Charlie had exaggerated looks of depression on their faces and were hanging their heads.

“You lot been chucked out?” asked Anthony terrified dreading the worst.

“No,” sighed Charlie dramatically.

“We’ve got a week’s detention,” said Harry grinning up at him.

“You gits,” muttered Anthony shaking his head and picking up a pillow from his bed.

“You ruddy gits!” he yelled attacking Harry and Charlie with the pillow.

It soon turned into a full-on pillow fight, Anthony and Athene versus Harry and Charlie and ended with them all laughing on the floor exhausted from chasing each other around.

“Oh!” exclaimed Athene, “we need to ring Uncle Davy.”

“Want to come Tony?”

“I’m coming Athy,” he chuckled putting an arm around Athene’s tiny waist and kissing her on the top of the head.

They walked downstairs and Athene rang the number for the base her Uncle was at.

“Hello, can I please talk to Major David Llewelyn?”

“May I ask who is calling?” asked the sergeant operating the phone.

“It’s his niece, Athene Richards.”

“Ah yes of course, I’m connecting you.”

Athene waited a few minutes and Anthony tried bending down so he could hear better sharing the earpiece with her.

“Athene?” asked Uncle Davy frantically, “is that really you.”

“Yes, I’m right here, with Anthony.”

“I’ve been so worried,” he stammered, “this is all my fault!”

“Uncle Davy,” said Athene calmly, “this is not your fault.”

“If I hadn’t been so high up in the army, they wouldn’t have kidnapped you,” interjected Uncle Davy.

“But.”

“No buts! I put your life in danger, I’ve asked to be reassigned to a desk job. We’re the only family each other’s got left. I don’t want you worrying about me while we’re away. 

When you were missing yesterday, I was more terrified than I’ve ever been in my life! More scared than when I go into battle. I was so scared that you were going to get hurt.”

“Uncle Davy, I’m fine!”

“I know that,” he said, “but it could have easily gone the other way. I’m not putting you in danger like that ever again. I’m coming back from Ireland at the end of the month, and I’m not going back.”

Athene tried to think of something to say, she had always been scared about someone in her family being at the front. Her father, her grandfather, her Uncle Davy. It was like a huge weight had just been lifted off her shoulders. She was so relieved that she was speechless.

“Athene darling?” said Uncle Davy, “say something.”

“That’s great,” she stammered with excitement, “I’ll see you next month.”

“I love you Cariad!”

“I love you too,” chuckled Athene.

Athene put the phone back down and burst into tears.

“Athene darling,” soothed Anthony, “don’t cry its all over.”

“I’m not upset Anthony,” she laughed still crying, “I’m happy.”

“My Uncle Davy’s coming home, and he’s never going back again!”


	61. Chapter 61

It was the last day of term and Anthony had helped Athene carry all her luggage down and they were both sitting on top of Anthony’s trunk whilst they waited for their families to arrive.

Graham and Lizzie were getting in some last-minute snogging around the corner, before they both went home. Malcom and Lucy were swapping addresses and had promised to write every day. Harry and Charlie had started an impromptu game of rugby with some of the other students, throwing the ball and running around between all the luggage and cars.

Julie and Mark were chatting away two to a dozen as if there was no tomorrow. But in a way there was no tomorrow. Julie’s parents were taking her on a driving tour of Europe for the whole Summer and they were leaving the very next day.

Anthony had his arm around Athene, and they were laughing at Mr Jones who was trying to stop the rugby game because of the cars. 

Anthony had hardly let Athene out of his sight for the last few weeks. It was almost he was worried that if she went out of his sight that she going to disappear again. They had done everything together for the last few weeks, reading in the library, Athene helping him with piano practise. Anthony felt like it was his job to protect her from any other dangers.

Major Llewelyn, and Mr Pennington’s cars pulled up in front of the drive at the same moment.

“Can’t we just have five more minutes Dad?” groaned Mark.

“Come on Marky, get the kit loaded, there’s a queue!”

“Ay ay sir,” muttered Mark loading his bags into the boot with help from his Dad, as Anthony loaded Athene’s bags.

Anthony gave Athene a tight hug as they finished packing the bags. Anthony seemed close to tears, and Athene was already crying.

“Let the girl go old man,” chuckled Mr Pennington kindly, “she’s not going to waste away, you’ll see her next month as always.”

Anthony nodded and bit his lip as he let go of Athene.

“Take good care of her,” he said to Major Llewelyn.

“Don’t worry son, I always do,” said Major Llewelyn patting Anthony on the back.

“Enjoy Wales!” said Mark waving goodbye before pulling himself into the front of the car.

Anthony seemed close to tears as they drove away from the school, every inch they drove was further away from Athene.

“Hey cheer up Tony!” called Mr Pennington.

“Celia came down yesterday, she brought Niki and Mikey with her. Simon will be here for the weekends as well.”

Anthony flinched his upper lip slightly not smiling but not grimacing either.

“I’m so exicted,” beamed Mark, “I’ve been asked to help out at the stage school in Horsham all Summer, I’m going to help all the kids.”

“Do you want to go into dance teaching when you finish school maybe Marky?” asked Mr Pennington.

“If plans A and B don’t work.”

“Which are?” asked Mr Pennington curiously as if Mark hadn’t explained his dreams fifty times before.

“Plan A,” said Mark proudly, “is to be a film star in movie musicals, like Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra.”

“Plan B,” he continued, “is to dazzle them all with my beautiful voice, and my guitar playing and be a music sensation.”

“Either way, you’ll have the ladies swarming around you like bees to honey,” laughed Mr Pennington.

Mark shrugged as if wasn’t too bothered about the girls swarming around him.

“What about you Tony?”

“Hmmm?” asked Anthony distractedly as he stopped looking out the window.

“What are you going to be up to this Summer?”

“Oh I don’t know, trying to figure out my A Level subjects, I suppose.”

“Tony!” groaned Mark.

“We’ve got a whole two months with no homework! Take a ruddy break!”

“If I pick the wrong subjects it will be a huge mistake,” he sighed, “I need to start thinking now about what I want to do at uni.”

“Anthony, calm down. You don’t have to worry about it, you’re good at all your subjects.”

“But I’ve got to cut them down by half,” he muttered.

“Mr Mitchell recommends not taking more than four or five at the most.”

“Tony son don’t worry about it. Mr Mitchell’s already told you that he will help you figure it out if you can’t decide by the end of the Summer.”

“Alright,” muttered Anthony smiling weakly.

The car pulled up in front of the house, and Anthony started to carry his suitcase into the house when he was crashed into something with a mass of bright blonde curls.

“Uncle Tony!” screamed Niki grabbing him around the knees.

“Hi there princess,” chuckled Anthony putting his suitcase down and picking up Niki.

Niki was now eighteen months old, and as beautiful as her mother. She had shoulder length golden curls and cornflower blue eyes, but she had a mischievous glint in her eye that she definitely got from her father.

“I see you’ve found the welcoming committee,” said Simon shaking his head and smirking.

“Why don’t I get welcomed like that?” asked Mark outraged.

“Oh Marky!” exclaimed Simon dramatically pulling his brother in for a hug.

“I’ve missed you so much!”

“Leave off,” grumbled Mark smiling at his older brother.

“Have you missed me little one?” asked Anthony looking at Niki on his hip.

“Yes.”

“Why have you missed me?”

“Because you spoil her rotten,” said Simon who couldn’t help himself but laughing.

“Book?” asked Niki hopefully.

“Why don’t we go see your Uncle Nick and Aunty Izzy first?”

“Ok,” said Niki still smiling.

Anthony left his suitcase in the hallway and went through to the kitchen where Isabelle was making a chocolate cake, whilst Nick talked to her.

“Tony!” beamed Nick giving his younger brother a hug.

“You can’t have grown have you?”

“Yeah,” sighed Anthony who hoped he would stop growing soon. 

He was now six foot six. Mark had stopped at six foot two, a year and a half ago. Anthony was now slightly over a foot and a half taller than Athene and it was highly inconvenient if they wanted to kiss, not to mention he had to duck to get through nearly any door.

“At least we’ll never lose you in a crowd,” said Isabelle giving him a hug.

“You’re taller than everyone else in the crowd!”  
“Book?” asked Niki again pouting slightly.

“Which book would you like?”

“Hobbitses,” she said grinning toothily.

“I’ve been reminding her about Tolkien her Uncle Tony’s favourite book,” said Nick.

“Come on princess, let’s go learn about some Hobbits.”

Anthony passed Celia and Simon in the living room who were watching Mark throw Michael in the air.

Anthony carried Niki up to his room and put Niki down on his bed as he went over to his bookcase.

“Ok Niki, are you sure you want The Hobbit, you wouldn’t prefer Winnie the Pooh.”

“Hobbitses!”

“Hobbitses right,” muttered Anthony smiling slightly.

He sat down on his bed and pulled Niki onto his lap.

“Are we comfy?”

“Yes,” said Niki nodding.

“Then I’ll begin,” said Anthony opening the book.

“In a hole in the ground lived a Hobbit…..”


	62. Chapter 62

Anthony had spent the whole morning reading Tolkien to Niki, she seemed to be obsessed with elves and Hobbits and dwarves. He wasn’t complaining or anything, he just found it a little bit strange at such a young age.

He was lying on top of his bed and reading the Aeneid, because Niki was taking her nap in the nursery. He had noticed recently that he preferred Latin literature to Greek. He didn’t know why, he just did.

“Hi Tony,” said Nick coming into the room.

He checked around the room shiftily before he began to say anything. Nick even checked under the two beds and behind the door for Mark.

“He’s in Horsham at the Stage school,” said Anthony not even asking why Nick was looking for Mark.

Nick sighed in relief as he shut the door and smiled at Anthony.

Something about this situation, Nick coming into his room to talk to him like this reminded Anthony of an event from a year ago, when Nick had talked to him about Isabelle.

“Anthony,” said Nick sighing awkwardly as he sat down at the end of the bed.

“There’s um something I need to talk to you about.”

“Well go then,” said Anthony putting his book away, “I’m all ears.”

“It’s Iz, I think I’m in love.”

“I know that,” sighed Anthony, “we all know that.”

Nick smiled foolishly as he looked down at his shoes.

“It’s um well. Well…”

Nick took a deep breath as if he wanted to get it over with.

“I’m going to ask her to marry me.”

“You’re what?” stammered Anthony.

“It’s too soon,” said Nick shaking his head, “I knew it!”

“No it’s not that,” said Anthony, “I just wasn’t expecting it.”

“You got a ring?”

“You bet,” beamed Nick pulling a small box out of his trouser pocket.

There was a silver band, with a large diamond circled by moonstones.

“I remember how pretty Athene’s moonstone necklace was,” said Nick, “so I went for moonstones.”

“It’s gorgeous,” said Anthony smiling.

“You have asked her parents, right?”

“What oh yeah, I’ve got permission, I got their reply this morning.”

“Then what are you waiting for?” asked Anthony shaking his head.

“What if she says no,” he mouthed.

“She won’t,” said Anthony, “she loves you.”

“I’d just die if she said no.”

“You have to ask her first,” Anthony pointed out.

“Right,” nodded Nick, putting the ring back in his pocket.

“Right,” he muttered.

“Wait you’re asking her right now?” asked Anthony frantically.

“Well yes,” said Nick confused.

“You’re not even taking her out first?”

“What does it matter when or how I ask her, if she loves me, she’ll say yes or no wherever I ask her.”

“If you come back up here in ten minutes in tears you’ve got a shoulder to cry on,” said Anthony getting his book back out.

“Thanks, little bro,” chuckled Nick leaving the room.

“Good luck!” called Anthony as Nick went downstairs.

Anthony was only a few pages into his book, when he heard a huge scream from downstairs. Either Simon had seen a mouse, or Nick was proposing.

Anthony picked up his book and headed down the stairs and found Simon and Celia both standing outside the open kitchen door listening into the conversation in the kitchen.

“Did she say yes?” asked Anthony.

“Of course, she said yes,” gushed Celia.

“Wait you knew?” asked Simon.

Anthony shrugged before going into the kitchen where Nick and hugging a crying Isabelle.

“Tony!” exclaimed Nick.

“She said yes!”

“I can see that,” chuckled Anthony looking at Isabelle’s hand.

“That is beautiful Izzy.”

“Merci Tony.”

“You know what I’m surprised about though,” said Anthony, “that you agreed to be part of this family.”

“Well Mark may be a bit full on, and Simon may sometimes be a bit annoying, but they both mean well. But most of all, there’s you who is the most wonderful person in the world, and I’d be happy to call you my brother.”

Anthony blushed slightly.

“You’ll be best man of course,” beamed Nick.

“Oi!” said Simon coming into the kitchen giving up the pretence that he hadn’t been listening to the whole conversation.

“Why aren’t I your best man? You were mine?”

“You can be Mark’s,” shrugged Nick.

“Yeah, like Mark’s going to be getting married anytime soon,” scoffed Simon slightly annoyed.

“I never actually said yes,” laughed Anthony.

“Why don’t you have Simon as your best man, and then Mark and I can do it for each other. This way we each get to be best man once.”

“You’re right Tony,” chuckled Nick, patting his brother on the back.

“I’ve got to go head to Horsham to pick up Mark and Dad I might get some champagne for tonight.”

“Why do we need champagne?” asked Isabelle.

“Because we’re celebrating!”

“I should go wake up the babies,” said Celia going up to the nursery with Anthony.

“Uncle Tony!” Niki was screaming from her cot as they went into the room.

“Hello darling,” he said picking up Niki from her crib.

“Are you wet?” he asked checking her nappy.

“no,” said Niki shaking her head.

“Bilby.”

“Bilby?”

“Bilby the hobitses.”

“Oh Bilbo!” nodded Anthony in realisation.

“Lets go do some reading then.”

Anthony read to Niki in the sitting room, as Nick cradled baby Michael. Celia and Isabelle were sitting next to each other admiring Isabelle’s ring.

They got through several chapters, before Simon got back form Horsham with Mr Pennington, Mark and half a dozen bottles of champagne. Mr Pennington had been in London checking some things at the company, and Mark had been setting things up at the stage school with the teachers for when the summer classes started tomorrow.

“I hear we’ve got something to celebrate,” said Mr Pennington indicating the champagne.

Nick and Isabelle smiled at each other, and Isabelle blushed slightly.

“Isabelle and I are engaged.”

“Now why is it,” asked Mark, “that I have been cursed with such beautiful sisters in law.”

“Some people would call that a blessing not a curse,” said Anthony as Niki helped her turn the page of the book.

“Yeah well I call it a curse, because I unlike you don’t have a girlfriend.”

“If you don’t have a girlfriend then whats Julie?” asked Simon.

“That’s different,” blushed Mark.

“Have you or have you not kissed Julie multiple times?” asked Simon.

“On the stage when we’re acting yeah,” said Mark slightly flustered.

“Do you miss when shes away?” asked Nick.

“maybe.”

“She’s your girlfriend,” said Celia.

“No she’s not!” protested Mark.

“I think he’s got a crush,” said Simon.

“No fighting tonight boys!” said Mr Pennington as Mark got red in the face.

“Tonight, we’re celebrating,” he said passing everyone glasses of champagne.

“To the Penningtons, and our ever-expanding family,” said Mr Pennington smiling at Isabelle.

“Merci,” she nodded.

“To the Pennington’s!” called Simon raising his glass.


	63. Chapter 63

As Nick, Simon and Mr Pennington worked at the publishing company but they all wanted to spend time with the family, they took it in turns to go to work, but all went at least a few days a week, but there was always at least one of them at home.

On the first Saturday of the holidays, Mr Pennington and Simon were on a very strange mission. Nick had gone into work, but even though Simon and Mr Pennington weren’t working they had left straight after breakfast and had told Mark and Anthony not to go out.

Mark was very annoyed, because it was a Saturday, but he had been forbidden from going into the stage school because there was apparently something important going on that he needed to be there for.

Mark was moping about in his room listening to records at top volume, and Anthony was playing with Niki in the sitting room. 

They were having a teddy bears tea party, but Niki had insisted on inviting Anthony. So Anthony was knelt in the sitting room having a pretend tea party with Niki who was in a party dress and her three teddy bears. Niki had even managed to convince Anthony into wearing one of Celia’s flowery hats. Niki had a miniature tea set with little flowers painted on the china and was carefully pouring Anthony a cup of tea.

Celia hadn’t come to the tea party, as she was far too busy taking pictures on Anthony’s camera of Anthony drinking from a doll’s teacup in one of her hats.

“Smile for the camera Tony!”

Anthony just ignored her and blew on his hot tea exaggeratedly.

“Perfect,” beamed Celia, “you’ve got to send that one to Athene.”

“And what would Princess Nicole like to do this afternoon?” asked Anthony after taking a pretend sip from his tea.

“Hobbitses!” beamed Niki.

“We finished The Hobbit yesterday,” Anthony told her gently.

“Hobbitses!” she insisted.

“We could start The Fellowship of the Ring if you want. That’s got Hobbits.”

Niki nodded enthusiastically.

“Jolly good, but as for now would you like a slice of cake?” he asked offering her an empty plate.

“Chocky?”

“Always chocky,” he nodded.

“All the best cakes are.”

“Yes,” she nodded taking an imaginary slice of cake and taking a huge bite of it.

“Only a real man can join in in a teddy bears tea party in that hat,” smirked Simon from the doorway.

“Oh hi Simon,” said Anthony smiling somewhat foolishly and taking off the pink floppy hat.

“Oh don’t take it off Tony,” said Simon laughing, “it suited you.”

“Shut up,” said Anthony through clenched teeth.

“There you are Tony,” said Mr Pennington, “can you and Mark come outside with me please?”

“Um sure,” shrugged Anthony getting up.

“Uncle Tony!” cried Niki as Anthony got up.

“No go!”

“It’s ok princess,” said Anthony kneeling down, “we’ll read about some Hobbits later, why don’t you finish you tea party?”

“Ok,” said Niki slightly upset but no longer crying.

“There’s a good girl,” he beamed kissing her on the forehead before going outside with Mark, Simon and his Dad.

In the driveway, was the old range rover and the cream two-seater that was now Nick’s, and the navy family car that belonged to Simon and Celia. There were now two brand new cars also parked on the driveway. One was a bright red sports car which had two seats and currently had the roof down, and the other one was racing green and had a backseat unlike the red car.

“They’re all yours,” beamed Mr Pennington.

“They’re what?” stammered Mark.

“They’re yours, one each take your pick.”

“You’re joking right?” asked Anthony looking between his Dad and Simon.

“Nope,” said Simon leaning against the bonnet of the red car, “you two are nearly seventeen. So high time you learnt how to drive!”

Anthony didn’t really have a preference, but he felt like he would feel much safer in the green car. It probably didn’t go as fast as it wasn’t a sports car, so less chance of accidents. Mark though had already fallen in love in with the red sports car and was caressing the leather of the seats.

“You’re a beauty aren’t you,” he muttered.

“She’s really mine?”

“It’s a she?” asked Simon.

“Well of course she’s a she!” said Mark offended that Simon could ever refer to his beautiful car as an it.

“You alright with the green one Tony?” asked Mr Pennington.

“I prefer it,” chuckled Anthony, “it looks safer!”

“I thought you might,” beamed Mr Pennington

“Do you two want some lessons then?” asked Mr Pennington.

“Dibs I get Simon!” called Mark hopping into the driving seat of his brand new car.

“Why you so keen to get Simon?” laughed Mr Pennington.

“Because he’s cooler, it’ll be more fun!”

Simon shrugged as he hopped into the car next to Mark and handed him the keys and they pulled away from the driveway at a faster speed than they probably should have.

“Simon might be the cooler one,” said Mr Pennington as they got into the other car.

“But he hasn’t had experience teaching someone to drive before, and that takes patience.”

“And our Simon doesn’t have the best of tempers,” he chuckled passing Anthony the keys.

“Right peddle’s, accelerator on your right, breaks on the left.”

“What’s in the middle?” asked Anthony as he adjusted the seat for his tall legs.

“The clutch,” he explained, “that’s how you change gears.”

“Cool,” beamed Anthony as he carefully turned on the car and slowly went in first gear

Anthony had a very slow and careful first lesson. The only reason they left the driveway was to drive into a filed they owned across the road. The field was much safer to practise on than an actual road. They hardly went over ten miles an hour, but nobody got hurt, and that was the speed that Anthony was comfortable at.

Mark’s first lesson was a lot less calm and collected than Anthony’s. they were driving at top speed down the road, but Simon did teach Mark how to do an emergency stop. They had to break in the middle of the road and narrowly avoided running over some of the Fforbes Hamilton’s cows who had escaped.

All in all though the first driving lessons went better than any of them had expected, none of the four of them were in hospital and neither Mark nor Anthony had crashed into anything.

As Mark parked his car in the driveway, a very relieved Simon got shakily back to his feet.

“Next time it’s Nicks turn,” he mumbled before going to go and find himself a cup of tea.

“You’re a beauty aren’t you Chloe?” said Mark stroking the bonnet of the cherry red car.

“Chloe?” asked Anthony, “you’ve called her Chloe?”

“Yeah,” he shrugged, “Chloe the car!”

“What’s yours called?”

“I think it needs a good sturdy name, for a safe sturdy car.”

“How about Nigel?

“You’re bloody boring!” said Mark shaking his head and heading inside, “and so’s Nigel!”

“Don’t listen to him Nig,” said Anthony softly, “you’re not boring, you’re just reliable.”


	64. Chapter 64

Anthony was woken by something small but heavy landing on him.

He opened his eyes a fraction of an inch and found a pair of bright blue eyes staring back at him intently.

“Daddy!” screamed Niki seeing that Anthony was actually awake.

“Is Uncle Tony awake?” asked Simon picking Niki off of Anthony’s bed.

“Well done poppet, now we’ve just got to wake up Uncle Mark.”

“Good luck with that,” chuckled Anthony as he pulled on his glasses.

“He sleeps like the dead.”

“Don’t you dare set that little terror on me,” mumbled Mark from deep beneath the covers.

“Why are you waking us up at six o’clock in the morning?” he grumbled glaring at Simon bleary eyed.

“Because today is a very important day,” beamed Simon bouncing Niki on his hip.

Simon and Niki were already dressed, Simon in a pair of shorts and a polo top, and Niki in a little blue and white summer dress. Simon had even haphazardly brushed Niki’s hair into untidy bunchies.

“No, it’s not,” said Mark, “not this early in the morning.”

“Get up you idiot!” said Simon thumping his little brother, “we’re leaving in two hours.”

“Why didn’t you wake me up in two hours then!” yelled Mark as Simon left and Anthony left to go get up.

“Because you need that long for the coffee to kick in!” laughed Simon.

Anthony pulled on a pair of navy shorts, and a white polo top and brushed his hair out quickly. Other than the height the other major difference between Mark and Anthony was their height, Mark was growing his out and his hair was curlier because of the length, whereas Anthony’s was neat and short. 

It was strange to think, that only a few years ago the only way to tell the brothers apart was the glasses, but now Anthony was several inches taller than Mark and had shorter hair as well as the glasses that he couldn’t see past the end of his nose without.

Anthony came downstairs, to find Simon and Celia trying to persuade Michael and Niki to eat their breakfasts.

Michael was fine, he was still being breastfed, and Celia was nursing Michael giving him his breakfast. But Niki seemed to be too excited to eat and wouldn’t eat her toast. From the look of Simon, she had also thrown her bowl of cereal at him as Simon was covered in oatmeal.

“Let me try,” chuckled Anthony taking Simon’s seat next to Niki.

“Thanks Tony,” said Simon smirking slightly as he went go clean himself off.

“Is somebody a bit excited this morning?” asked Anthony as he brought over a fresh bowl of oatmeal.

Niki nodded enthusiastically as her favourite uncle sat down.

“Where are going today Niki?”

“Can you say the beach?”

“Beach!” exclaimed Niki.

“Clever girl,” said Anthony, putting the spoon in the oatmeal, “I think that deserves a spoon of breakfast.”

Niki turned her nose up at the breakfast and stuck her little lip out.

“You don’t want your breakfast?” asked Anthony surprised.

“But little girls who don’t eat their breakfasts won’t have any fun at the beach today. Everyone else will be building sandcastles and collecting shells, but little Niki will be tired because she didn’t eat her breakfast.”

Niki looked utterly miserable and seemed close to tears.

“But if you eat your breakfast,” shrugged Anthony.

Niki still looked thoroughly unconvinced.

“I’ll tell you what,” said Anthony, “how about I tell you a story as you eat?”

“Hobbitses?”

“There might be Hobbits in there,” he said evasively, “you’ll have to eat some breakfast first.”

Niki nodded again and ate a spoonful of her oatmeal.

“Once upon a time, there was a family of Hobbits who lived in a hole.”

Anthony stopped and Niki ate another spoonful of breakfast.

“There was a big strong Daddy Hobbit, a very pretty Mummy Hobbit, and a tiny little baby Hobbit.”

“Do you know who else lived there?” asked Anthony.

“No,” said Niki shaking her head.

“Well, have some more breakfast and I’ll tell you.”

Niki nodded and another one, no two spoonful’s of breakfast.

“There was also a little girl Hobbit, and this is who are story is about.”

“Me!” exclaimed Niki.

“Yes you,” chuckled Anthony.

“One day, it was very a sunny day like the one now. Niki was very excited.”

“It’s all gone,” said Niki disappointed showing him her empty bowl.

“Eat you toast then sweetheart,” laughed Celia.

“Now then, Niki was very excited because on this very special sunny day, her best friend in the whole world was coming to visit. The Green wizard Anthony, and his friend Mark the elf.”

“Uncle Marky’s an elf!” giggled Niki.

“And you’re a hobbit,” Anthony pointed out, “Mark was very nearly a dwarf.”

Simon chortled slightly as he sat back down to listen into the story.

“So the wizards and the elf came to visit. Niki loved it when Anthony and Mark visited. Mark would play with her all day, chasing her around and playing endless games of hide and seek. But her favourite time was when they were all tired from running and the wizard Anthony would tell Niki stories about all his different adventures.”

“He would tell her about all his fantastic quests, fighting orks and finding dragons treasure. Anthony was not the oldest of wizards, only about a quarter of the age of his friend Gandalf the Grey, but that did not make Anthony any less wise.”

“On this particular day, Anthony the wizard and Mark the elf came to visit and they had both brought her a present for their favourite little Hobbit.”

“Mark gave her a bow and arrow. The arrow was enchanted so that it would never miss its target. He promised to show her how to use it properly when she got older. Although Mark’s present seemed lots of fun, Mummy Hobbit decided to put it away safely until Niki was older, so that little Niki didn’t get hurt.”

“Mummy Hobbit’s no fun!” sulked Niki.

“Mark is a very irresponsible elf,” muttered Celia raising her eyebrows as she did her shirt back up having finished feeding Michael.

“Which is why Mummy Hobbit put the bow and arrow away until Niki was older. But Anthony’s present was even more magical. Anthony was a very wise wizard, and he knew that Niki loved stories, so he gave her an enchanted story book. It contained every story in the world. If Niki wanted to find a certain story, all she had to do was think about it, and the book would fall open to the right page.”

“Wow!” said Simon.

“That’s some book,” agreed Nick as he joined them for breakfast.

“Why are Nick and I not in this story of yours hmm?” asked Isabelle smiling as she brought over a fresh pot of coffee.

“Ah yes of course!” said Anthony having entirely forgotten.

“There was also prince Nickolas, he was a man, but he was next in line to the throne of Gondor. Although he was but a mere mortal he was a brave warrior and had won many great battles.”

“Prince Nickolas was in love with the fair and beautiful Isabelle. Isabelle had a sheet of soft golden hair locks that reached all the way down to her waist and her eyes shone like stars in the sky. But Isabelle was an elf and therefore immortal. But even though Nickolas was a mortal, and Isabelle an immortal elf, they still fell in love and had many children, and someday they shall rule the whole of Gondor together Nickolas as king and Isabelle at his side.”

“Should that do it?” asked Anthony looking at Nick and Isabelle.

“A courageous warrior king, and his unnaturally beautiful wife?” asked Nick, “we’ll take that.”

Whilst Anthony had been talking, Niki had finished her breakfast, and Mark and Mr Pennington had shown up at the table.

Mark was dressed but still tousle haired and looked very groggy. He was nursing his first cup of coffee of the morning and glaring at anyone who even looked at him.

“You know,” muttered Simon, “Mark may look like an elf most of the time, but first thing in the morning he looks more like an orc.”

“What did you say?” asked Mark threateningly.

“Nothing,” smirked Simon.

“Right,” chuckled Mr Pennington, “calling all men, wizards, hobbits and immortal elves, we’re leaving in half an hour, so eat up.”

“Let’s hope that’s long enough for Mark to transform from an orc to an elf,” smirked Simon to Nick.

“What was that?” said Mark glaring at them both.

“Nothing!” they said innocently.

Anthony finished his strawberry jam on toast and went to go fetch his things.

“Sunglasses,” he muttered collecting them, “sun cream, bucket and spade for Niki.”

“Spare jumper,” he nodded tying a cricket jumper around his neck. 

“Sun hat,” grabbing his panama.

“What am I forgetting?” he asked looking around his room.

“The kitchen sink?” asked Mark collecting a pair of sunglasses and putting them on his head before flouncing downstairs.

“Camera!” exclaimed Anthony putting the strap around his neck.

“How could I ever forget the camera,” he chuckled to himself shaking his head.

They went in two cars, Simons car had enough space for his own family and a few others.

Celia was holding Michael on her lap, and Anthony was sat in the back of the car and Niki was sitting on his lap. Anthony didn’t think it seemed very safe, he hoped that somebody would invent child friendly car seats soon.

Mark and Mr Pennington were also in the back of the car. Mark seemed thoroughly unimpressed wedged between Anthony and his Dad and a bunch of bags and buckets and spades in the back seat. 

It didn’t help that Nick and Isabelle got a car to themselves, but Nick’s car like Mark’s only had two seats. Both car boots were crammed full of deckchairs.


	65. Chapter 65

Finally after what seemed like ages, they pulled away from the driveway.

“And we’re off,” said Mr Pennington.

“Are you excited for the beach Niki?” asked Celia.

“yes,” she nodded bouncing excitedly on Anthony’s lap as Anthony kept a firm hold on her.

“What are we going to do at the beach?” asked Mark.

“Are we going to go swimming in the sea?”

“She’s too little,” laughed Anthony.

“She might be able to go wading and chase the waves with help from some adults though,” said Mr Pennington.

“There’s lots of pretty seashells to collect,” said Anthony.

“But none of them are as pretty as your Mummy,” said Simon smiling over at Celia.

“You have to say that” laughed Celia.

“Let’s face it Simon, I’ve given you two beautiful children but I’ve lost my youthful beauty.”

“You’re only twenty-one!” groaned Mark.

“You’ll always beautiful to me Cels,” said Simon lovingly keeping his eyes on the road.

“Stop the car!” said Mark dramatically, “they’re making me sick!”

“No you’re not,” said Mr Pennington shaking his head, “but we are going to stop the car soon.”

“Wow!” said Anthony looking out the window and pointing.

“Can you see the sea Niki?”

“No,” said Niki crying that she had missed it. They had come all this way and she had missed it.

“It’s alright,” chuckled Anthony drying her eyes, “you’ll see it properly in a minute.”

Simon parked the car next to Nick’s. Nick and Isabelle were currently making out in Nick’s parked car with the top down.

“Hem hem!” said Mr Pennington, “this is a family friendly day out.”

“Sorry Dad,” chuckled Nick getting out of the car.

Simon was busy trying to get the prams out of the boot and unfolding them.

“No!” yelled Niki as Simon tried to put her in the pram.

“You can’t walk darling,” said Simon exasperated, “look cars. Its dangerous.”

“I’ll carry her,” said Anthony picking her up and putting her on his hip.

Simon seemed like he was about to protest when Celia stopped him.

“Just leave her,” said Celia gently placing Michael carefully in his pram.

“She’s excited and wants to have a fun day, bring her pram with you for later when she’s tired all right darling?”

“Alright darling,” beamed Simon softly. 

Celia always seemed to know when Simon’s temper was on edge and knew exactly how to talk him down.

As Niki didn’t want to go in her pram, they actually filled Niki’s pram with some of the deckchairs as they were easier to carry that way. Between them all they managed to lug all the deckchairs, and buckets and spades down to the beach.

Nick and Simon managed to get the prams down the steps carefully one pram at a time. Celia looked terrified as Nick and Simon carried Michael’s pram down the stone steps to the beach, she wasn’t just worried that they might drop the pram, if they jolted it too much, they would wake Michael who was asleep. 

But Michael stayed fast asleep. He was the perfect baby and always had been, all he ever did was eat, sleep and then wake up again when he was hungry.

As they lived so close to the beach, it was still not quite nine o’clock in the morning so the beach was quite empty and they were able to set up their chairs on the best places.

“Look Niki,” said Anthony putting Niki down on the sand, “it’s the sea!”

Niki started to run towards the sea as fast as her little toddler legs could carry her, followed by Mark and Anthony.

“Be careful!” called Celia as she put on sun cream, “don’t let her go too deep!”

Niki seemed to stop warily on the edge of the sand and was looking curiously at the water. 

“It’s ok Niki,” said Anthony taking her hand, “it’s not going to hurt you.”

“Do you want play a game Niki?” asked Mark crouching down.

“Nick and Simon used to play it with us when we were little, but Michaels too little.”

“Big girl!” said Niki proudly.

“Precisely,” nodded Mark.

“Now then what you do, is Uncle Tony takes one hand, and Uncle Marky takes your other, and we rush at the waves when they crash on the sand, and we all get wet.”

“Do you want to play Niki?” asked Anthony.

“Yes!” she nodded beaming with all the little teeth.

Anthony looked behind him and noticed that his Dad had borrowed his camera to get pictures of the three of them.

They took of their shoes and socks and left them with the others before rushing down to the waves holding firmly onto one of Niki’s hands each.

“You ready?” asked Mark as the wave got closer and they got ready to run.

“One two three!” he yelled as they ran.

But as Mark got to three, the wave hit them and hit Mark right in the face. Mark’s mouth was wide open from yelling, so he got a mouthful of seawater.

“Please tell me you got that on camera!” asked Anthony as he and Niki laughed hysterically, and Mark spat out the sea water and rushed back to the family to get some fresh water.

“I videoed it!” chuckled Mr Pennington.

“Perfect,” beamed Anthony.

“Want to go again Niki?” asked Mark coming back who had taken off his shirt and was now just wearing his swimming trunk.

“Yes!” she exclaimed.

They ran back and forth for a while, before Niki got bored of running, and Mark went off to go and do some proper swimming.

The beach was getting more crowded now, other families had started to arrive. Nick and Isabelle had disappeared somewhere probably to go do some kissing. Simon was reading a book but was half asleep, and Celia was asleep completely exhausted from being a full time mother.

Mr Pennington though, was thoroughly enjoying looking after his grandson, introducing baby Michael who was now awake to a flock of seagulls.

“Now then Michael, when we get our fish and chips later, don’t give any to the naughty seagulls, or they’ll gobble the lot.”

“Naughty seagulls,” agreed Anthony as he and Niki came over.

“You had enough wave chasing?” asked Mr Pennington.

“I’m not surprised you were at it for nearly two hours.”

“What’s next on the agenda princess Nicole?”

“Do we want to look for seashells,” suggested Anthony, “we’ll need them for our sandcastle later.”

“Ok,” beamed Niki as she took a tiny bucket with one hand and clung onto Anthony’s hand with her other.

Anthony chuckled and picked up his own bucket as they went off to explore.

“Now don’t forget,” said Anthony, “watch out for crabs, they like to hide in rock pools, they’ll bite your little toes off, naughty crabs.”

Niki giggled as they kept exploring looking for seashells. After about half an hour their buckets were nearly full, and they were going to head back.

“Uncle Tony!” called Niki.

“What is it!” asked Anthony running over to where Niki was. 

She was standing by the edge of a large hole, but she hadn’t fallen in, she was looking into the hole with interest though.

Anthony looked into the large hole curiously and couldn’t help himself from bursting out laughing. 

He had found Nick and Isabelle’s hidey hole, literally. Nick and Isabelle had dug a very large hole on the opposite side of the beach from the family and were lying in it in their swimming costumes. Well Nick was lying in the hole, and Isabelle was lying on top of Nick and they had clearly just been making out.

“Go away Tony!” said Nick who was blushing tomato red.

“If you come back with that ruddy camera!” he called as Anthony and Niki ran away laughing hysterically.

It was tempting to go back with the camera to get a photograph, instead Anthony told a very interested Simon, who suddenly found he didn’t care for his book anymore and went for a walk along the beach with Anthony’s camera.

“Lets have a look at these sea shells then,” said Mr Pennington as they poured all the sea shells into a large bucket and through them all.

“Pretty!” said Niki picking up a delicate little pink shell.

“Not at pretty as you,” said Mr Pennington kissing his granddaughter on the forehead which made her giggle.

“I like this one,” said Anthony pulling out a white spirally shell.

Once all the shells had been thoroughly investigated, Anthony and Niki started to go and fill up buckets with sand.

“You want wet sand,” he told her.

“Why?” asked Niki.

“Because it’s better for building with,” he explained patiently.

“Oh,” said Niki nodding as Anthony helped her pat sand into her little bucket.

Before long they had several buckets of sand. One large bucket, and four smaller ones. They put the larger bucket of sand in the middle, and the other four were towers.

“Shells?” asked Niki hopefully.

“Yes Niki shells,” nodded Anthony.

“Do you think prince Nickolas and his elven princess Isabelle live in here?” asked Celia as she helped them decorate the castle.

Celia had just woken up from her nap and was looking much better because of it.

“No,” said Niki shaking her head.

“Where do they live then?” asked Celia.

“Hole,” said Niki simply.

“With the crabs,” agreed Simon coming back with Anthony’s camera.

“One of the crabs just pinched Nick’s bottom.”

Niki laughed at the rude word.

“Simon!” scolded Celia glaring at him.

“Sorry darling,” he chuckled.

“Nick didn’t really get bitten, did he?” asked Anthony as the four of them decorated the sandcastle.

“No, but he’d deserve it, he’s having far too much fun. They’re having so much fun, that Nick and Isabelle didn’t even realise I was there taking photos for about ten minutes.”

“You stood there for ten minutes casually taking photos?” laughed Celia.

“Yep,” nodded Simon.

Once they had placed all the shells, Simon and Anthony carefully dug the moat around the large castle.

“Now we’ve got to dig a channel down to the sea,” said Simon.

“Why?” asked Niki.

“So that the tide can fill the moat of our castle for us.”

“Oh. Clever!”

“Daddy’s are very clever,” beamed Simon giving his daughter a quick kiss on the forehead before going to help Anthony dig the channel.

Once the channel was finished, the moat did indeed fill itself with help from the tide, and Niki was amazed.

“Magic!” she exclaimed.

“Not magic no,” said Simon, “but it was pretty cool.”

Anthony managed to get a picture of Simon showing Niki how the moat worked, and another picture of Niki’s first ever sandcastle.

The best part of the day though, wasn’t Niki’s sandcastle, or finding Nick and Isabelle’s hiding hole.

At one point in the afternoon, Mark was showing off as usual. He was trying to show off how strong he was and how magnificent his body was to some young girls who were watching in amazement and giggling, when a huge wave came in from the sea and knocked Mark right over, which was made even better by the fact that Anthony had gotten it recorded not just with a photograph but as a thirty second video.

They stayed out until long after all the other families had gone home, and the tide was starting to come in. They were all sat on the stone wall by the car park looking over the beach eating their fish and chips out of newspaper, Anthony had a battered sausage as he didn’t like fish.

After tea they all packed back into the car, and a very tired Niki fell asleep on Anthony’s lap having played all day.

When Anthony went to bed that day, he knew there was only thing that could have made that day any better. Athene.


	66. Chapter 66

It was a Tuesday afternoon, and chucking it down with rain. Athene and Anthony were up in the attic reading as usual, and for once they usually crowded house was quiet.

Nick, Simon, and Mr Pennington were all at work, Mark was at the stage school helping with the children, and Isabelle was in Horsham looking at wedding dresses. She was going to go shopping properly with Celia in London for one, but Isabelle just wanted an idea of what she was looking for.

Anthony had his arm wrapped around Athene as he read her love poetry, and Athene had her eyes shut as she let the Ovid’s wonderful words wash over her.

“Uncle Tony!” called Niki up the attic stairs.

“Aunty Athy!” she called toddling into the room.

“I think we’ve had enough of Ovid today,” said Anthony putting away the Amores as the toddler came into the room.

“Found you!” she exclaimed.

“So you have,” said Anthony in a tone of the upmost surprise.

“What do you want to do?” asked Athene lifting Niki up onto the large bed next to her and Anthony.

“Flowers!”

“We can’t pick flowers today,” she explained calmly, “it’s raining too hard.”

Niki stuck out her little lip, and it seemed like she was about to cry.

“Now don’t cry sweetheart,” said Athene gently holding Niki close as Anthony passed her a handkerchief.

Athene carefully dried Niki’s little eyes.

“Why don’t we have story time?” asked Anthony knowing his nieces favourite thing to do in the world.

“Yes!”

“Hobbits?” asked Anthony.

“Yes!” she said nodding her head excitedly.

Anthony got off the bed to go and get out the Tolkien.

“No book,” she said shaking her head.

“Oh you want to make up a story?”

“I know one,” chuckled Athene, “but it’s silly.”

“Oh go on Athy,” chuckled Anthony wanting to hear it.

“Whenever I wanted a story my Grandpa would always tell me the exact same one.”

“It was dark and stormy night,” said Athene ominously, “three robbers sat in a cave. One robber said to the other, Bill, tell us a story. And so he began….”

“It was dark and stormy night,” she continued laughing, “three robbers sat in a cave.”

“You’re joking right?” asked Anthony, “that’s not a real story.”

“Yeah, I didn’t ask Grandpa for stories much,” laughed Athene.

“I can do better than that,” said Anthony shaking his head, “and you can help Athene.”

“Once upon a time,” he began, “a long time ago, there was a magical kingdom, with elves and fairies and magical flying horses called Pegasus’s.”

“Hobitses?” asked Niki hopefully.

“Not in this land no,” laughed Anthony, “but there aren’t any orcs or dragons though.”

“This land was ruled by a kind and just king and queen,” continued Athene, “king Stefan and queen Bridget. The people in the land were very happy, but the king and queen were very sad, they had no children.”

“Oh no!” exclaimed Niki.

“It’s alright Cariad,” said Athene settling Niki on her lap.

“I thought I was your Cariad?” muttered Anthony.

“You can have more than one Cariad,” chuckled Athene.

“Anyway,” she continued, “the king and queen couldn’t have children, so every night queen Bridget would wish on her favourite star for a child, but her wish was unfulfilled, until one night.”

“On a very magical and special night,” continued Anthony, “a fairy came down from the star to talk to the queen.”

“Dear queen Bridget!” said Anthony in a high squeaky voice.

Niki started to giggle at Anthony’s fairy voice.

“I have heard your wish and it is a good one, in nine months from tonight you shall give birth to a beautiful baby girl, and a handsome strong boy.”

“Queen Bridget thanked the kind fairy, and then fairy was gone in a puff of smoke.”

“The queen was astounded,” said Athene, “she couldn’t believe that the fairy had granted her wish and had given not just one child but two.   
But sure enough, other the next few months the queen’s tummy started to grow, until it was as huge as a massive beach ball. The nine months came to an end, and the queen and king welcomed a twin girl and boy, who they called Achilles and Penelope.”

“Oh good choices,” beamed Anthony to Athene.

“Now everyone in the kingdom was happy, and as the years went by, the royal prince and princess grew. Achilles grew into a handsome young warrior, nobody could beat him at the sword or the bow and arrow, nobody was better than Achilles and Achilles knew it. 

But Achilles wasn’t exactly the brightest, which is why it was a good thing that his sister Penelope was not only extremely beautiful but exceptionally wise. Penelope was always reading something and knew about all the different creatures in the land and could speak five different languages, including Elvish.”

“On the prince and princesses eighteenth birthday,” continued Athene, “there was a great celebration, because they had come of age, and suitors came from all the lands to try and court the brave Achilles, and the wise Penelope.”

“There were so many gifts, Achilles had been given a golden chariot, with Pegasus’s to pull it for him, so he could fly across the sky. Penelope was given many beautiful dresses and pieces of fine jewellery, but her favourite present was from the royal librarian, who had written her an account of the royal family and the quests of all the different kings and queens and princes and princesses to date. It had beautiful illustrations to go with the stories. At the back of the book, were several blank pages with only a few words written on them, Prince Achilles and Princess Penelope.”

“They were in the middle of celebrating,” said Anthony, “when a dashing young knight came rushing into the castle and knelt down in front of the king and queen.”

“I am the brave Prince Odysseus, from the kingdom of Telvora. It is a beautiful and plentiful land, but we have been attacked by a dragon once a month for the last three months. He has been taking our people! Please help us King Stefan the Just and Queen Bridget the Kind.”

“Of course, we’ll help you,” said King Stefan, “please rise dear boy, how can we help you?”

“We have heard in our land of your son and daughter, the magnificent Achilles and princess Penelope the omniscient.”

“I wouldn’t say I know everything,” muttered Penelope under her breath. 

Odysseus heard her and nodded at her smiling.

Penelope blushed slightly as Odysseus continued.

Anthony had started telling the story on his won by this point, and he was so good at it that Athene let him get on with it.

“Please, allow your son and daughter to help us defeat the dragon.”

“A quest!” exclaimed Achilles holding his sword in the air.

“You want Penelope too?” asked King Stefan, “but she can’t fight!”

“I’ve read every book in the library father,” she interjected, “I know how to fight a dragon!”

“Besides, if Achilles goes without me he’s so stupid he’ll probably go the wrong way.”

“Hey!” shouted Achilles, “that’s not fair!”

Penelope raised her eyebrows at her brother.

“Alright maybe it is true,” he chuckled.

“If you take them with you,” said Queen Bridget, “you have to promise to bring them back safely. They’re the only children we have.”

“Yes, your majesty,” said Odysseus bowing.

“Once you have defeated the dragon, if you both wish it, you may marry my daughter Princess Penelope.”

Odysseus and Penelope smiled at each other. There wasn’t going to be any problems there. All they had to do now was defeat a dragon.

“How far is it to your kingdom prince Odysseus?” asked Penelope.

“It is many days ride, nearly a months, by the time we arrive, the dragon shall have attacked again.”

“not if we fly,” said Penelope beaming.

“Well I’m sorry little sis,” chuckled Achilles, “but I unlike you don’t have a set of wings, we can’t fly.”

“No stupid,” said Penelope rolling her eyes at Achilles again, “but your flying chariot can!”

“Oh yeah!” said Achilles nodding in realisation.

Achilles grabbed his best sword and bow and arrows. Penelope grabbed her best books on dragons to read during the flight.

Prince Achilles the mighty, Prince Odysseus the brave and Princess Penelope the wise all climbed into the spacious solid gold chariot, and the stable boys prepared the four Pegasus’s for the long flight.

“Good luck darlings!” said Queen Bridget hugging her beautiful children before.

“We shall return!” said Prince Achilles taking the reins, “with the head of the dragon!!”

There was a large cheer from the court, as they made space for the Pegasus’s to get a running start. And they were off, straight up into the sky, flying over tiny villages and huge mountains.

Prince Odysseus was thoroughly impressed, it was much faster to fly then travel by land, the same journey that had taken him very nearly a month, would probably only take half a day. Princess Penelope seemed completely unfazed and curled up on the floor of the chariot to read her book on dragons.

“According to this, they only hunt on the night of the full moon.”

“That’s tomorrow,” said Odysseus joining Penelope on the floor and reading over her shoulder.

“They camp in caves in the mountains,” she continued.

“Well, there is a mountain, we might be able to find it before tomorrow.”

“And apparently, they can talk.”

“They can?” asked Odysseus, “I mean it’s been saying something, but it’s all been jibberish.”

“Ah yes, but that because dragons only ever talk backwards, if he was trying to say ‘Hello Prince Odysseus,” it would say “Olleh Ecnirp Suessydo.”

“Oh right,” muttered Odysseus.

“It also says they only attack when they have to,” continued Penelope, “they usually only hunt for food once a month, and don’t attack humans.”

“That’s strange, for the last few months that dragons been attacking our kingdom.”

“If we can figure out what the dragon wants before the full moon tomorrow night, maybe he won’t attack again?”

“Maybe,” said Odysseus hopefully.

As they flew over all the different lands, Odysseus explained to Penelope about all the different kingdoms and places he had visited.

“I wish I could travel like you,” she beamed.

“Well, if we get married, we can travel together.”

“You’re wonderful you know that?” said Penelope smiling up at him lovingly.

“And you two are sick makening!” said Achilles.

“We’re here,” said Odysseus as night began to fall.

Achilles pulled at the reins, and the Pegasus’s started to fly lower, before stopping outside the gates of the royal castle.

The king and queen of Telvora came rushing out of the castle to greet their visitors.

“Odysseus!” exclaimed the queen, “you’re safe!”

“I’m fine mother,” said Odysseus.

“Who are you young friends Odysseus?” asked the king.

“These are Prince Achilles the Mighty, and Princess Penelope the Wise from the kingdom of Cawdor.”

Achilles and Penelope bowed and curtsied deeply to the king and queen.

“Rise, Prince Achilles, and Princess Penelope,” said the king, “your fighting prowess and wisdom is legendary. You have come to help with the dragon?”

“Yes my liege,” said Achilles, “and take its head back to hang on the castle walls in the banqueting hall at Cawdor.”

“Unless it’s a friendly dragon,” interjected Penelope.

“Yeah,” muttered Achilles smiling foolishly, “unless it’s friendly.”

“You all must be exhausted,” said the queen, “come rest, you have a long day of questing tomorrow.”

Achilles and Penelope slept on soft beds that night, whilst Achilles Pegasus’s rested from their long flight.

The next day, the two princes and the princess got up at dawn to begin climbing the mountain next to the castle. 

As they got further up the mountain, they started seeing makeshift cabins, that had clearly been built quite recently.

“That’s strange,” muttered Odysseus, “nobody lives on this mountain, the terrain isn’t good for growing on, and most people are scared away by the dragon.”

But this was clearly not true, as there was about half a dozen cabins spread around the small mountain. They eventually reached a cave where there was five or six people whispering nervously in the mouth of the cave.

“Prince Odysseus!” called one of the peasants.

“Why are you living here?” asked Odysseus, “why hasn’t the dragon eaten any of you?”

“We don’t know,” pleaded one of the women, “it kidnapped us, and keeps on trying to talk, but we don’t understand it. It wont eat us though.”

“I’ll try,” said Penelope walking into the cave bravely followed by Achilles and Odysseus.

“Don’t forget Achilles,” she said, “you cant kill it if its nice.”

“Fine,” grumbled Achilles, “but it would look cool on my wall!”

As they walked further into the cave, they could hear the rumbling of the dragon.

“Olleh!” called a frightened voice from further back in the cave.

“Olleh?” asked Penelope holding a flaming torch sigh so they dragon could hear them.

She had to remember to speak backwards so the dragon could understand her.

“Ohw era ouy?”

“Ssecnirp Epolenep.”

“Stahw rouy eman?”

“Ffup eht cigam nogard.”

“What’s it saying?” asked Odysseus.

“It’s saying its called Puff the Magic Dragon,” said Penelope confused.

At this point the dragon came walking nervously into view. It was quite small for a dragon, and bright red, with a friendly face.

“It’s a girl,” said Penelope.

“Great,” drawled Achilles, “it’s nice to know what gender it is!”

“Ask her why she’s been attacking my kingdom, and why she hasn’t those people she kidnapped.”

“Yhw era uoy gnikcatta eht modgnik?”

“M’I yelnol,” said Puff the Magic Dragon looking thoroughly miserable and a tear coming to her eyes.

“She’s lonely!” exclaimed Penelope.

“Oh!” said Odysseus is realisation.

“Yhw t’tevah ouy netae eht stnaseap?”

“M’I nairetegev,” explained the dragon.

“Apparently Puff is a vegetarian, she only took the people for company, but they don’t understand her, and she doesn’t understand them.”

“Well if we have people come visit Puff, if she’s friendly,” said Odysseus, “and the children play with her she won’t take people. Also, now we know what’s she’s doing, we can learn how to talk backwards.”

“I love you Odysseus,” said Penelope smiling up at him.

“And I do, my sweet Penelope,” said Odysseus kissing her softly on the lips.

“Can we go home now?” asked Achilles thoroughly disappointed that he had just finished his first quest and not killed anything.

“Sure,” chuckled Penelope.

Achilles, Penelope and Odysseus flew back to Cawdor, and Odysseus and Penelope got married the very next day. On their honeymoon, Penelope and Odysseus went around all the kingdoms and traveled the world.

And they all lived happily ever after.”

“Now that,” said Anthony as he finished, “was a story.”

Niki was beaming at him wildly, Athene was looking at Anthony dumbstruck. 

Her boyfriend was not only sexy, intelligent, brilliant at piano and great with kids, he apparently could now make up stories on the spot. Athene somehow loves Anthony even more now.


	67. Chapter 67

Nick was helping Anthony and Athene heave their trunks into the boot of the range rover. The car was precariously packed, and Mark’s guitar was balanced on top of the trunks. It was always like some strange kind of jigsaw puzzle, trying to get three or four sets of luggage into the boot without anything falling over or spilling out.

“Can you believe,” groaned Simon as they loaded the last bag, “that we’ve only got to do this another two times?”

“It’s hard to believe some days isn’t it?” chuckled Nick.

“Our little brothers all grown up.”

“If Anthony and Athene decide to swan off to university though this isn’t going to be over anytime soon.”

“That can be dealt with if and when it happens,” said Mr Pennington, “but for now, we’ve got to get a move on or we’ll be late.”

Athene and Anthony were already in the car waiting to go.

“Marcus Harold Pennington!” he shouted, “if you don’t get down here right now, we’re going to have to leave without you.”

“Is that an option?” asked Mark hopefully coming out of the house his tap shoes tied around his neck by the laces.

“I mean do I really need A Levels?”

“Get in the car!” he said firmly.

“Yes sir,” smirked Mark pulling himself up into the car.

An hour later they were at the school, and it was chaotic as always people clamouring all over themselves to unpack their cars.

“Now you see Mark,” said Anthony, “if you had been ready om time, we could have missed the rush.”

“Yeah yeah whatever,” muttered Mark.

“Let’s go check the rooms,” said Athene ignoring Mark and Anthony’s usual arguments.  
The sixth formers, shared dorms with less people. Rather than one room for the girls and one for the boys in each house per year there was only two to four people in each room. Mr Jones had the list of which room everyone was in so Athene went over to check whilst the others unpacked the car.

“Good Afternoon Mr Jones,” beamed Athene.

“Ah Athene,” said Mr Jones smiling in relief that it wasn’t yet another anxious first year with their frantic parents.

“I’m hoping to see you and Anthony in my History A Level class.”

“Less said about Mark the better?” laughed Athene remembering how Mark had liked to disturb the history class from sheer boredom.

“Yes,” laughed Mr Jones nodding.

“Now then, the sixth form rooms are on the top floor, you are in room four, and Mark and Anthony are in room three, they’re across the corridor from each other.”

“Thank you, sir,” beamed Athene.

“Right!” said Mr Pennington like a man on a mission, “to the top floor.”

Anthony and Mr Pennington got Athene’s trunk between them, and Mark and Athene followed with the suitcases, and Mark’s guitar.

“Why,” groaned Anthony as they climbed the last suitcase, “do we have to live on the fourth ruddy floor!”

“Tony is that you out there?” asked a disembodied voice from down the corridor.

Suddenly Julies head came floating into view around the door of one of the girl’s dorms.

“Fred!” exclaimed Julie rushing out of her room and towards Mark.

“Ginger!” beamed Mark dropping his guitar and his suitcases and lifting Julie in the air.

“I’ve missed you,” they both said together.

“I’ve missed you two as well obviously,” laughed Julie as Mark put her back down on the ground.

“Just not as much as Mark?” supplied Athene.

“That’s about it,” laughed Julie.

“Come on,” said Julie pulling Athene, “wait till you see our room! It’s huge!”

Julie half pulled Athene who was still carrying her suitcases into their new dorm. Julie was right the room was huge, and it had big windows. There were two single beds with light pink floral sheets, one of each side of the room, and three wardrobes. There was also one bunk bed along one of the walls, and instead of their being another bed, there was a desk.

Julie had already taken one of the two single beds for herself, and Charlie’s coat and hat had been thrown haphazardly on the other one. Athene had a suspicion that Charlie had dropped off her things and then run off to go and find Harry as quick as she could.

“We gave you the bunk bed, we thought you might want the desk. That way you can that huge bookcase next to your bed as well. Heavens knows Charlie and I don’t have enough books to fill it between us.”

“Thanks,” beamed Athene as she put her suitcases next to her trunk and started to unpack. It was as if her two best friends had read her mind, she didn’t mind having the bunkbed, because that way she got the desk and the bookcase.

“The boys are across the hall with Harry,” Julie jabbered quickly, as Julie unpacked all her clothes into her wardrobe.

Athene thought that Julie had owned fashionable and sophisticated clothes before, but the Fforbes Hamiltons had just gotten back from a Summer touring Europe. Beforehand her clothes had been from London, but now Julie’s home clothes were the latest fashions from Paris and Milan.

Julie was currently folding away a smart navy and cream two piece suit, with a matching skirt and blazer. Athene didn’t know why Julie had packed so much home clothes, they had to wear uniform apart from evenings and weekends.

“I wish we still didn’t have to wear these horrid uniforms,” sighed Julie looking at the red jumper and matching plaid skirt and blazer.

“Red and grey, it’s just do drab. It’s really not my colour.”

“It’s a school uniform Jules,” chuckled Athene as she finished her own unpacking, “it’s not supposed to be glamourous it’s practical.”

“It’s alright for you, red suits you with your auburn hair. It washes me out completely, I look simply ghastly.”

“You look fine Julie,” muttered Athene somewhat tonelessly. She had told Julie all this fifteen times before.

“You look wonderful whatever you’re wearing.

Julie smiled up at Athene.

“Thanks Athy, you’re a gem!”

“Oh my god I forgot!” exclaimed Julie hitting her forehead with her hand.

“Old Mitch wants to see you and Tony in his office.”

“Oh we’re not in trouble or anything are we?” she asked frantically.

“You two in trouble with Mitch?” laughed Julie.

“Leave off!”

“I guess I’d best go find out what he wants,” shrugged Athene.

“Tons!” called Athene poking her head into the corridor.

“Yes Athy?” asked Anthony appearing in his own dorm doorway carrying a tower of History books.

“Mr Mitchell wants to see us.”

“Oh trouble with the head already Tony?” smirked Mark.

“Firstly it’s the deputy head,” said Anthony as he put his books down.

“And secondly, buzz off.”

“What strong language from one of our beloved prefects!” exclaimed Mark in mock outrage as Anthony and Athene left.

Anthony shook his head as he put his arm around Athene’s waist, and they walked down to the ground floor together.

Anthony knocked firmly on Mr Mitchell’s office door.

“Come!” he called somewhat tiredly.

“You wanted to see us sir?” asked Athene.

“Ah Anthony! Athene!” he exclaimed his face lighting up at seeing them.

“Good Summers? Didn’t study too much I hope?”

“No sir,” laughed Anthony, “I spent most of it with my niece, she’s a year and half old but clings onto me when I’m at home like a limpet.”

“That would be Simon’s daughter wouldn’t it?”

“Yes Nicole,” nodded Anthony.

“How are your brothers?”

“They’re both fine, Simon’s got two children, and Nick’s engaged.”

“How about you Athene?”

“Uncle Davy and I went back to Wales for a month, it rained the whole time which made it even better!”

“I’ll bet it did,” chuckled Mr Mitchell.

“But now to business. A Levels.”

“Oh God,” muttered Anthony. He still had no idea what subjects he wanted to take.

“Now then I wouldn’t recommend taking any more than five each. That way if you’re struggling you can drop a subject. But some universities do require five.”

Anthony exhaled deeply, he remembered how much work Nick had put into four A Levels, and now here he was being told he’d need to take five.

“Before we discuss universities themselves, what degrees would you like to take? This will affect your subject choices for your A Levels.”

Anthony and Athene looked at each other nonplussed; they still had no idea what they wanted to do as they were good at all of their subjects.

“Let’s start off with something easier,” chuckled Mr Mitchell.

“There is first of all the core sciences, that would mean four A Level’s maths, biology, chemistry and physics. A very popular option, especially if you want to go into medicine or engineering.”

“I was thinking about maybe taking Maths sir,” muttered Anthony, “I’ve always been good at it, but I don’t think I want to do the core sciences.”

“That’s alright you can still take maths without the other three. I thought the core sciences might not appeal, might I suggest a different approach then, the humanities or languages?”

“You’re the top of the class in French Athene, and you’re both top in Latin. If you would prefer there is the humanities, History, English Literature you know the thing.”

“Couldn’t we take a bit of both?” asked Athene.

“That’s what I would suggest for you’re a Levels, but university, what would you like to study?”

“What’s your favourite subjects?”

Anthony and Athene thought for a minute what was their favourite subject? What would they not mind spending three long years studying nothing but.

“Latin!” they said in unison.

“Ah music to my ears,” beamed Mr Mitchell, “I hope you’d both say that.”

“So, you should probably both take Latin, and Classical Civilisations. In Clas Civ we study Greek and Roman literature, art and culture. If you want to study Classics at university it will be a good starting point.”

“The Latin and Clas Civ A Levels will be taught by myself and Miss Dobson who is new.”

“If you two were to take Classical Studies at university, you would be furthering your Latin, you’d learn some Greek, and learn Greek and Roman history and of course get to study the greats, Homer, Vergil, Ovid.”

Athene and Anthony’s faces had lighted up like lightbulbs. 

“So that’s two A Levels each. I know you want to take Maths Anthony, anything in particular you’d like to take Athene?”

“Could I take French?”

Mr Mitchell nodded and jotted that down.

“As for the last two, Classics is a combination of History and Literature, so if you were to take History, and English Literature those skills will be invaluable later.”

“Sounds perfect,” beamed Anthony as Athene nodded.

Mr Mitchell wrote down the five subject choices for them.

“We’ll be doing this with everyone else tomorrow, but I thought it might be less stressful for you two if we did this now.”

“Now we’ve done the boring part, universities!”

Mr Mitchell pulled out several glossy prospectuses. 

“We’ve got all the normal ones, Exeter, Cambridge, Edenborough, and of course Oxford.”

“Please forgive me,” he chuckled handing Anthony and Athene a booklet on Oxford colleges, “I am more than slightly biased towards my own Alma Mater.”

“But these are the top universities in the country,” stammered Anthony as Athene flicked through a brochure for Exeter.

“Anthony, you and Athene are two of the most gifted and hardworking students I have had the pleasure to teach. Whichever university you two decide to choose would find themselves privileged to have you.”

“So, which one do we apply for?” asked Athene.

“Well, you can apply for all of them, but you do have to choose between Cambridge and Oxford. The others would be ‘safety schools’ if you don’t get into Cambridge or Oxford. What I would suggest is you two take these and have a good old look through, we can have another talk tomorrow hmm?”

“Thank you, sir,” beamed Anthony collecting up the brochures.

Athene and Anthony headed back up to Athene’s dorm, and plonked themselves down on her bunk.

Anthony found himself drawn to a brochure for Oxford and was flicking through looking at the black and white photographs of the old buildings.

“It’s strange isn’t it?” muttered Athene reading over his shoulder.

“What is?” he asked putting an arm around her.

“To think that we’re actually going to go!”

Anthony paused for a moment as suddenly his body was filled with a strange warmth as he looked at the spired buildings. In two years from now, he could actually be there. University was no longer a distant dream.

“Just promise me one thing?” asked Anthony.

“If we apply for oxford and one of us gets turned down neither of us will go. We’ll go to Exeter or Edenborough or one of the others, we’ll stick together.”

“I promise,” said Athene giving him a quick kiss before they started reading about the different colleges.


	68. Chapter 68

Mark was woken up a bell ringing. 

It was loud. Too loud. Mark had always thought so, it made his head split.

He was back in the ruddy hell hole that they called a school. 

Oh, he supposed it wasn’t that bad, he wasn’t bad at lessons, well he wasn’t good like Anthony either, but he usually passed around the middle of his class. But that wasn’t what he cared about really. Most of the boys at the school were either rugby mad or cadet crazy, quite a few of them like Harry were both.

The only moments of solace he had were in drama club two evenings a week and Saturday afternoons. They put on a play in the Autumn, a musical in the Spring, and also organised the Speech Day entertainment at the end of the year.

“Marky,” Anthony called as he hopped down from his bunk bed, “time to get up mate.”

“I’m coming,” grumbled Mark.

Only six hundred and seventy odd days left, and he would be out of here. 

Mark opened his eyes and saw Harry fumbling with his tie in the mirror, and Anthony was combing his hair with the usual brylcream.

Anthony’s hair was always neat thanks to the magic tin, but Mark couldn’t stand the stuff for some reason, and liked his long natural dark curls the way they were. Mark’s hair had nearly reached his collar now.

“Come on Mark,” said Harry as he pulled on his shoes, “if we don’t get a move on we’ll miss breakfast.”

“I’m coming,” nodded Mark hoping he could get himself a cup of coffee at breakfast.

When they got down to breakfast, Anthony had his usual strawberry jam on toast, whilst Athene had marmite on hers. Mark never felt like eating much at breakfast, all he needed was his caffeine fix to get him started for the day.

Two cups of coffee later, and the world seemed to appear much less bleary to Mark and he was much more awake.

Once Mr Mitchell had handed out all the timetables, he came over to the two Lower Sixth tables.

“Right you lot!” he said, “A-Level students. All Lower Sixth students are to meet in the Latin classroom straight after assembly.”

“What about our timetables sir?” asked Lizzie.

“That is what we’ll be sorting out Lizzie, now get a move on or we’ll all be late for assembly.”

After the welcome back assembly, Mark was surprised that it wasn’t just Mr Mitchell’s students standing outside the Latin room, but all the Lower Sixth, all sixty of them.

“Right you miserable lot,” said Mr Davies coming into the classroom, “get in and find a seat, if you can’t find a seat sit on a desk.”

Mark looked at Julie incredulously before they both shrugged and headed into the classroom. Harry, Charlie, Mark and Julie all sat down on top of a doble desk at the back of the classroom, and Athene and Anthony sat down at their usual front desk.

Mr Mitchell and Mr Davies were standing at the front of the classroom with Mr Jones, Mr Baker the Head of English and Mr Turner Head of Science.

“Right quiet please!” called Mr Mitchell.

The chattering and muttering stopped almost instantly and Mr Mitchell got everyone’s attention.

“Alright, we’re here to pick you’re A-Level subjects. We’re going to start with an easy one, who here wants to take Maths?”

About twenty five people in the room put up their hands, including Anthony and Mark. 

Mr Jones had a clipboard and jotted down the students who had signed up to take maths.

“Biology?”

Fifteen people put their hands in the air, most of them had already signed up for Maths, and Mr Jones jotted them down again.

They did the same routine for Physics and Chemistry.

“Right,” said Mr Turner, “who has just signed up to take all four of the above, Maths, Biology, Chemistry and Physics?”

About twelve boys and Lizzie all put their hands in the air.

“Well first of all I wouldn’t recommend taking any more, you’re going to have your hands full. Secondly, your first Biology lesson will be second period.”

Graham put his hand in the air.

“Yes Graham?” asked Mr Mitchell.

“Well I want to be a doctor like my Dad. He said I should take Latin as it should help with my medical training. Will it clash with any of my maths or science lessons?”

“That is an excellent question for you to ask, firstly no, it doesn’t clash with any lessons apart from Physics. But if you want to go into medicine you won’t need Physics anyway. Also, if you want to take all maths and science you shouldn’t take more than four, I suggest if you do want to take Latin, drop Physics.”

“Thank you, sir,” nodded Graham, “that’s perfect.”

Lizzie put her hand in the air.

“Can I do that too sir?” she asked, “I also want to study medicine.”

“A woman doctor?” scoffed one of the boys.

“There is no harm in that,” said Mr Turner, “female doctors are becoming quite the norm. I look forward to having you in my classes.”

“On that subject. Any more for Latin?”

About ten people put their hands in the air. Only eight signed up for Classical Civilisations. There was a lot less people for the humanities subjects than the sciences. History was the most popular with fifteen.

“And finally,” said Mr Mitchell, “Music?”

Five people put their hands in the air, including Mark, Julie and a handsome boy with bright blonde hair that Mark had never seen before.

“Right, if you’re taking Biology, follow Mr Turner. Otherwise please return to the common room, we’ll sort out the schedules in time for the next lesson.”

They went to go and explore the sixth form common room which was a new luxury to them. Anthony and Athene had already found the bookcases and were flicking through a book the size of a large dictionary. They were squashed into a massive armchair together flicking through the book. 

Some of the boys, were fiddling with the radio. They couldn’t have it on too loudly, as some people were in class but they were crowded around listening intently. 

“Hey Fred,” called Julie, “this is a good one!”

Julie pulled Mark over to the radio and they started to dance energetically to the music, doing all the latest dances twisting and shimmying around the common room. Mark noticed that the mysterious boy with the blonde hair kept on catching his eye.

Mark had Maths in the second period, followed by double English Literature before lunch. He had a free period after lunch which was followed by music in the final period of the day.

They all met up in the music room and the boy with the blonde hair was sat between two of the boys from Mr Bakers house.

“Right,” said Mr Wells, “everyone gather round and pull up a chair.”

“There’s only a few of us, so we’re going to get to know each other very well, so introductions. Quite a lot of you already know me, I’m Mr Wells, I’m the head of music and drama, I also run the drama club which coincidentally meets tonight.”

Richard groaned, Mr Wells had been trying to persuade him to join for years.

“Nobody’s making you join Richard,” chuckled Mr Wells.

“I’m Richard Smith, captain of the swimming team. I play the recorder and clarinet.”

“He’s basically just an old windbag,” chuckled William.

“Yes yes thank you William,” sighed Mr Wells.

“I’m William Callas, I play the violin, cello and a bit of the piano.”

“I’m Johnnie,” said the boy with the blonde hair smiling nervously, “Johnnie Jones.”

“I’m new here,” he chuckled, “my parents seemed to think that it was good time for them to move abroad and have me change schools when I’ve only got two years left anyway. I play piano, but its mainly singing.”

“I’m Julie Fforbes Hamilton, I don’t play instruments, but I sing.”

“And I’m Mark Pennington, I play guitar and also sing.”

They spent the rest of the lesson learning about Mozart. At the end of lesson as they started to pack away, Mr Wells called Mark and Julie back.

“Could you two come help me set up for drama club, you haven’t got too much prep yet have you?”

“No sir,” said Julie shaking her head.

“Um can I come too,” said Johnnie, “I want to join Drama club.”

“The more the merrier!” beamed Mr Wells as they headed off to the drama room.

The only difference between the drama and the music room is there was a lot less desks and chairs in the drama room. There was also only the piano instead of assorted instruments. But there was a large stage that took up half the room.

Julie, Mark and Johnnie helped put out the chairs for when the students arrived.

“I’ve got some really good news for you two,” beamed Mr Wells.

“I made a new friend over the Summer holidays.”

“Whilst it’s lovely to hear about your social arrangements Mr Wells, why is this good news for us?” asked Julie.

“Because he’s a talent scout,” said Mr Wells smiling at them.

“And he’s heard all about you both, he’s going to come see some shows this year if he can.”

“Are you serious?” stammered Mark.

If he got spotted, he could get a contract, he could be in films. Maybe even Hollywood!

“Why would I joke about something as important as this?” asked Mr Wells.

“Anyway the kids will be here soon.”

Mr Wells was right, about thirty students of varying ages from throughout the school had come into the room having finished prep.

“Right, we’re doing the great Will Shakespeare this term. It’s not the Scottish play, it’s not Romeo and Juliet, it’s not Hamlet.”

“It’s,” he stopped for a moment, “drumroll please!”

The students gave him a brief drumroll.

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream!”

“Mark, Julie and Johnnie, will now go out and give out the scripts. If you can all go through the scripts for next week and try and learn a speech for your chosen character. We’ll be having auditions next Friday.”

They spent the next hour playing drama games and improvising. 

“Um Mark,” said Johnnie at the end of the lesson, “do you want to go and work on the Music homework together?”

“Sure,” beamed Mark.

They grabbed their bags and headed back to the dorm, leaving a very confused Julie in their wake.

When they got to the dorm, Harry wasn’t there and neither was Anthony. Harry had rugby, and Anthony was probably in the library.

Mark and Harry both got their books out and sprawled out on Marks bed and started on their homework, which that week was to research the life of Mozart in time for next weeks lesson.

“You got the his date of death Mark?” asked Johnnie after a while.

“Um sure,” said Mark distractedly passing him the right book.

Johnnie and Mark’s hands brushed slightly as he passed over the book, and Mark felt an electric surge run through his body.

From the look of Johnnies face, he had just had a similar experience.

Mark moved aside the books and edged up closer to Johnnie on the bed completely ignoring his homework. 

He didn’t know why they were doing this, but it just seemed right.

Johnnie put his hand on Mark’s cheek and brushed it softly.

Mark hummed softly as he closed his eyes and took in the whole experience. He could smell the musky smell of Johnnie’s after shave combined with the lavender from his soap.

Mark took his hand and brushed Johnnie’s face tracing his perfect jaw line.

“Wait,” said Johnnie disturbing their moment of passion.

“What about Julie?”

“What about her?” asked Mark. Julie was the last thing on his mind right now.

“Isn’t she your girlfriend?”

“God no,” said Mark slightly horrified of even thinking of Julie in that way.

“Well, that’s alright then,” beamed Johnnie as he cupped Mark’s face in his hands and pulled Mark in for a deep kiss.

It felt so perfect, Mark was kissing him back without even thinking and running his fingers through Johnnies soft golden locks.

They might have been sat there for five minutes, it could have been several hours, Mark didn’t know he was completely lost in the moment.

All he knew was, that just as suddenly as it had started it was all over.

“What the hell are you doing!” shouted Julie from the doorway.

Mark and Johnnie broke apart and whipped their heads around. Johnnie looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

“What the hell are you doing,” said Mark through gritted teeth pulling Julie into the room and closing the door after her.

“Looking for help on the music homework,” she said casually.

“And the next time you two want to break by the law, you might want to lock the door at least.”

“Break the law?” asked Mark, “what law?”

“The law against homosexuals,” sighed Johnnie looking thoroughly miserable.

Illegal. Being like this was illegal. But how it felt so natural, so right. It felt so much more natural than anytime he had ever kissed Julie on the stage.

How could being like this ever be wrong? 

“What are you talking about?”

“How can it be illegal, if you like guys rather than girls, you can’t help it right?”

“You’re right Mark,” sighed Julie, “but it’s illegal.”

“Well acting on it is illegal, and just being gay is frowned upon.”

“So what am we supposed to do,” asked Johnnie, “just ignore the fact we feel this way for each other?”

“Either that or get much better at hiding it,” said Julie.

“Because if you act on your feelings, and sleep with each other, and somebody found out, you could both end going to prison.”

“Prison,” said Mark horrified, “for loving someone?”

“What’s harm is it doing anyone?” asked Johnnie.

“I don’t know,” muttered Julie, “but I have got a plan.”

“Mark, if we pretend to be going out and kiss each other every now and again.”

Mark looked slightly disgusted.

“Stage kissing, just acting like we do on the stage.”

Mark seemed slightly less upset.

“Well that way, we can throw people off the trail.”

“People will think that Mark can’t be gay because you’re his girlfriend.”

“And people won’t know about Johnnie either,” added Mark.

“But isn’t all this lying?”

“Well yes,” said Julie inclining her head slightly, “but it’s either lying or prison.”

“Julie,” said Mark getting off the bed and pulling Julie in for a hug.

“You are the best friend in the entire world!”

“I know,” laughed Julie.

“Now I’ll keep watch over the door, I’ll knock when I see Anthony or Harry coming.”

“Thanks Julie!” they called as she left.

“Johnnie,” asked Mark as they sat back down.

“How long have you known?”

“A year or so, but I’ve never kissed a boy before.”

“I only learnt about an hour ago,” laughed Mark.

“Well it sounds like we’ve got some time to make up for,” smirked Johnnie tracing Mark’s lips with his finger.

When Mark went to bed that night he lay awake for a while. Johnnie had left hours ago, but he couldn’t sleep. 

He had had an emotional whirlwind today, discovered he was gay, experienced his first kiss the most natural thing in the world, only to be told that it was illegal, and his happiness evaporated as fast as it had appeared. But then, Julie had offered to cover up for them, even offered to help by keeping watch sometimes. He was so grateful, but Mark knew one thing, he had to keep his sexuality a secret from everyone. Especially Anthony.


	69. Chapter 69

Anthony and Athene were helping Mark and Julie with their English essays. They had started studying Chaucer, that week and they were supposed to be translating a section into more modern English.

“I just can’t get a hang of this old English,” sighed Mark throwing aside an old dictionary from the top of Anthony’s bed.

“Be careful Fred!” muttered Julie, “that one nearly hit Athens on the head!”

“Sorry Athy,” called Mark poking his head over from where he had been lying on Anthony’s bunk.

“As long as you don’t start throwing hardbacks I should get by without a concussion,” shrugged Athene casually as she picked up the dictionary and opened it to the right page.

“I think we’re done for the day,” beamed Anthony closing the books with a hint of finality.

“Thank God for that,” exclaimed Mark practically leaping from the top bunk to the floor.

“I’m nearly late for rehearsal,” he muttered retying his tie in the mirror and straightening his shirt.

“And now my dear friends anon,” said Mark giving a deep exaggerated bow.

“But before I go fair maiden, may I beg a kiss from your sweet lips?”

Julie shook her head and kissed Mark on the lips.

“Get on with you,” chuckled Julie, “or Wells will clip your wings.”

“Till the morrow comrades!”

At this he leapt from the room leaving the door swinging behind him.

“Don’t you have rehearsal too Julie?” asked Athene.

“Oh Mr Wells wants to see the fairies on their own for half an hour first, I’m not needed until six. Mark’s playing Puck, but I’m playing Hermia.”

“Let’s face it Mark was born for the role,” muttered Anthony as he got out Maths textbook, “he’s always been away with the fairies.”

“He is going to be great,” nodded Athene, “I can’t wait to see you all in it next week.”

“Can you guys believe we’ve already nearly finished the first term of our A Levels?” asked Anthony.

“What do you guys want to do when you get out of this joint?” asked Julie.

They both looked at Julie and gave her a significant look. All that Athene and Anthony had talked about for the last two months was university. The colleges they wanted to apply for, what they were going to study.

“We all know what you and Marky want to do. But to be honest no matter how talented he is he’s got more chance of being a film star as Graham does of getting elected prime minister.”

Athene looked at Anthony slightly crestfallen, they all knew how talented Mark was. 

All of them had dreams, yes Mark and Julie’s dreams were a lot more ambitious as some of theirs. Anthony out of them was the biggest dreamer of them all, making up fairy tales for his nieces and nephews. Anthony talking down his brother and Julie’s dreams made her feel slightly disappointed in him. Anthony was Mark’s twin brother, if he didn’t believe in Mark then who would.

Anthony straightened his glasses and bit his lip seeing the disappointed expression etched onto his girlfriend’s face.

“Look I’m sorry Athy darling, but it’s true. The entertainment industry is hard for anyone to get into, and that’s even if you’ve got the right connections and been to the right schools which Marky hasn’t.”

“He went to stage school,” interjected Athene.

“It’s not good enough,” sighed Anthony.

“If you two will both shut up arguing for a minute, I’ve got some news for you.”

They both whipped their heads around and looked at Julie slightly confused.

“There’s a talent scout coming to the play next week, he’s a friend of Mr Wells. You’ve got nothing to worry about Tony.”

“Why didn’t you tell us earlier?” asked Anthony knocking over his pot of ink all over his maths problems in shock.

“In case nothing came of it,” shrugged Julie as Athene helped Anthony clean up the ink.

“Nothing still might come of it.”

“That’s a pretty big might there Jules,” said Anthony.

“You don’t seem so excited,” said Athene confused, “I thought you’d be jumping for joy.”

“Mark is,” muttered Julie, “but I’m not.”

“Why not!” exclaimed Anthony, “don’t you want to get spotted and flown off to Hollywood with the hubby?”

All that Mark and Julie had talked about since they were five years old, was being film stars like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. They still used the nicknames now even though Mark was now seventeen.

“Mark does, but I don’t. Not anymore.”

“What?” stammered Athene.

“I can’t move to America even if I wanted to. When I leave school in two years, I’m going to have to learn how to look after the land and run the business.”

Anthony was astounded, not only was Julie talking about this so casually, but she didn’t even seem slightly upset.

“Anthony, stop looking at me like that!” she laughed.

“I might as well have just told you that I’m a magical fairy princess who grants wishes and rides a bright pink flying unicorn.”

Anthony was halfway between checking for wings on her shoulders and telling her that a flying unicorn would actually be a Pegasus but seemed to decide against it. Even he could notice sarcasm that heavy.

“But isn’t this what you’ve always wanted, to be a famous dancer or film star.”

“It was when I was little,” shrugged Julie, “it might have been different if I had siblings, but Dad’s not getting any younger and somebodies got to take over.”

“Do you know how many cows the Fforbes Hamilton farms actually have?”

“No,” said Anthony, “but I know it’s a lot.”

“Well, there’s about sixty farmhands, working in thirty cattle farms throughout Sussex and Surrey. Someday, I’m going to have to be in charge of running all that.”

The idea of Julie driving around farms in muddy wellies and a range rover almost made Anthony laugh. She was just so sophisticated, and never had a hair out of place. It just didn’t make sense. 

Was this some kind of alternate reality, and Charlie was about to come waltzing into the room and announce that she had just won the Miss World beauty competition?

“I think that’s wonderful Julie,” said Athene as Anthony stared into space.

“If that’s Tony’s reaction, imagine how confused Mark’s going to be when I break the news to him!” laughed Julie.

“How long have you known though?”

“I don’t know, a couple of years maybe, but I suppose for I’ve always known deep down. It’s different for Mark and Tony, they don’t have to take over the family business they’ve got siblings.”

“I suppose that I’ve always knows that I’d have to take over the business and get married so I can provide an heir.”

“Now that will be a sight to see,” laughed Anthony breaking out of his trance.

“Fred and Ginger’s finest dairy products, the best milkshakes this side of Hollywood Boulevard.”

“I could go off you, you know,” said Athene hitting him with a Latin dictionary lightly.

“I couldn’t marry Mark!” said Julie who couldn’t help herself from laughing.

“What are you talking about?” asked Athene.

“You two hardly let each other leave a room without snogging,” said Anthony.

“Mark’s not the marrying type,” said Julie evasively.

“Yeah, I can’t see him settling down to be fair,” said Athene.

“You know you’re right; he is more of a crazy uncle than a husband type.”


	70. Chapter 70

“Mr Gardner say he’s never seen such raw talent, and he’s really excited. He’s writing to his friend Mr Schuller in Hollywood who’s going to come and see me in the school musical next term!”

“We know Mark,” muttered Athene.

“It could mean a Hollywood film contract when we’ve finished at school.”

“We know Mark,” sighed Anthony.

“It’s what I’ve always wanted!”

“We know Mark!” shouted Mr Pennington, Anthony and Athene.

It had been a fortnight since Mark had been invited for his interview with Mr Gardner after A Midsummer Nights Dream. Julie had been offered an interview down but had turned it down. She had explained to Mark about her family commitments, and Mark seemed confused but not upset for long. He was going to be a film star!

Unsurprisingly Mark had talked about nothing else for a fortnight, and although they were very proud of Mark, Athene and Anthony had heard enough about it. Mr Wells though hadn’t stopped jumping for joy.

“Try telling Michael when we get home,” said Anthony, “you can bore him to sleep.”

Mark didn’t seem him though fortunately, and at this point, the car pulled into the driveway.

Simon and Nick were waving enthusiastically. Simon was balancing Michael on his hip, and Nick was trying to stop Nicole from getting run over by the car.

“Uncle Tony!” cried Niki as he got out of the car, “Aunty Athy!”

“What am I?” asked Mark, “chopped liver.”

“Hello there little princess,” said Anthony picking up Niki and kissing her on the forehead.

“How are you little one?”

“Mummy got another baby,” said Niki proudly.

“In her tummy?” asked Athene.

“Yes!”

“Not again,” groaned Mark.

“I’m afraid so Marky,” said Simon patting his brother on the back.

“That’s it,” shrugging in resign, “I’m moving to America.”

“Do you want a baby brother or sister?” asked Athene.

“Brother,” said Niki simply.

“But you’ve already got a little brother,” said Anthony.

“I’m the only girl,” said Niki proudly, “I’m special!”

“You’ll always be special to me Niki,” said Simon ruffling her golden hair as Anthony out her back down.

“Come!” said Niki grabbing Athene and Anthony’s wrists and half pulling them in to the sitting room.

Hung over the fireplace in the sitting room were ten stockings with names embroidered on them.

“Do you know who those are for?” asked Athene.

“Santa Clause!” exclaimed Niki.

“Have you been a good girl?” asked Anthony.

Niki nodded enthusiastically.

“Are you sure?” he asked suspiciously.

“Think so,” she muttered.

“Well, I know so,” said Anthony giving her a huge kiss.

“What do you want for Christmas?”

“Dolly!”

“What are you going to call your dolly?” asked Athene.

“Athy!”

“Well, I’m honoured Cariad,” said Athene kissing her.

“Shall we go find your mummy and Aunty Izzy?”

“Ok,” said Niki taking one of their hands each as they went through to the kitchen.

Izzy and Celia were at the kitchen table flicking through bridal magazines.

“Here you go darling,” said Celia passing Niki some sultanas from when they had been making the mince pies.

“Fixed on a date yet?” asked Athene looking at some different hairstyles in one of the magazines.

“Well we wanted June,” shrugged Izzy, “but someone’s giving birth again then, and you lot won’t be back from school, so probably early July.”

“What colour are you going to wear?” asked Athene.

“Well white of course,” said Izzy.

“I think the question should be what colour are you going to wear,” said Celia.

“Well we can’t pick the dress for Niki, until we know the colour for the Maid of Honour.”

“Aren’t you going to be the Maid of Honour?” stammered Athene.

“I am going to have to look after two babies, Michael and the new-born.”

“Besides ma Cherie,” said Izzy, “you’re as much of a sister to me as Celia.”

“Do you think I could possibly wear pink?” asked Athene nervously.

“I don’t see why not,” shrugged Celia.

“You will look beautiful darling,” said Anthony giving her a kiss.

Niki pulled at Anthony’s trouser leg pouting slightly.

“You’ll be beautiful sweetheart,” said Anthony lifting Niki on to his lap.

“Hobitses?” asked Niki hopefully.

“If she doesn’t want Bilbo or Frodo, she wants one of your own stories. It drives Simon crazy, he doesn’t have your imagination."

“Why don’t I tell you a very special Christmas story, it’s got hobbits in it.”

Niki nodded enthusiastically, and Athene and Anthony left the others to wedding planning as they went through to the sitting room where Simon had just lit a fire.

“Santa!” sobbed Niki.

“What about him darling?” asked Simon.

Niki pointed to the roaring fire.

“Well little one,” said Anthony, “Santa does come through that fireplace, but he’s magical which makes him fireproof, he won’t get burnt if he comes through the fire.”

“Oh,” said Niki settling down comfortably onto Anthony’s lap.

“Thank you!” mouthed Simon beaming as he left.

“Are you ready for your special Christmas story?”

“Always ready,” laughed Athene.

“Yes!” nodded Niki.

“Once Upon a Time in a land far far away, there was a little Hobbit called Niki. Now all Hobbit’s are small, but this Hobbit was particularly small. She was bigger than her baby brother though, he was so small that Niki’s Mummy had to carry him everywhere.

One day, Niki’s Daddy sat her down and told her about the magic of Christmas. It wasn’t Niki’s first Christmas, but last year, Niki had been small to remember much of it. But this year was going to be very special.

He told her about Father Christmas, sometimes known as Santa Clause who delivered the presents with help from his elves. Now Father Christmas delivers presents to this world too, but elves are not like people on earth think they are.

Elves do have pointed ears, but they are not tiny on the contrary they are tall, beautiful and immortal. There are two types of magical elves, the warrior elves who fight to protect middle earth, and the other type who help Santa make and deliver all the presents not just to the children in Middle Earth but in all the other worlds as well.

Her Daddy told her, that if she truly believed, that on Christmas Eve when Niki was tucked up in bed like the good little Hobbit that she is, Father Christmas would deliver tiny little bags of sweets and wonderful toys.

He also told her that if there was snow when they woke up on Christmas morning, they would get luck for the rest of the year.

Niki the Hobbit prayed every night leading up to Christmas, that she would get visited by Father Christmas, and that it would snow on Christmas Day.

On Christmas Eve, Niki’s Mummy tucked her into bed snug and warm after she had said her prayers. 

But even though Niki was very tired, she was far too excited to sleep. That night, she didn’t sleep very well, she kept drifting on and off. But Niki was sure that one time when she woke up she saw a face of a beautiful woman with long silvery blonde hair and bright blue eyes and pointed ears smiling at her. Maybe she had just dreamt it?

The next morning, she woke up and opened her eyes a fraction of an inch, and found a tiny little stocking hanging from the end of her bed. She emptied it on to her bed, and found several coins, a large collection of boiled sweets and even an orange.

“Well, who’s been a good little Hobbit?” asked Daddy from the doorway.

“Santa and his elves must have thought you were a very good little girl to be so generous.”

“Do you want to go and check on the snow?”

Niki nodded enthusiastically, and her Daddy picked her up. They went to the front door in their pyjamas. And sure, enough outside the door there was a clear four inches of pure white untouched snow.

“It’s so pretty!” said Niki beaming as she looked at the snow.

Niki and her Daddy rushed inside and got dressed before going out to go and play in the snow. By the time that mummy come out, they had built a whole snow Hobbit family, even the baby in Mummy’s arms.

“Do you two want your presents?” asked Mummy.

“Yes!” exclaimed Daddy and Niki.

Daddy picked Niki up again and they went back inside to open their presents.

Niki got lots of lovley presents, including books and toys from her Mummy and Daddy, but once all the presents had been opened, there was still one left.

“It’s for you darling,” said her Mummy passing the last present to Niki.

Niki ripped the paper off the box and lifted off the lid. 

Niki let a gasp of astonishment. Inside the box lying on a bed on tissue paper, was a beautiful china doll. It looked exactly like the woman from last night, even down to the elven pointed ears.

“It’s beautiful,” said Mummy looking at the doll as Niki cradled her.

It was the best Christmas Niki had ever had. The End.”

Niki clapped enthusiastically as he finished.

“You do know Tony,” asked Simon who had been listening in, “telling her all those elaborate stories just makes me look bad when I try reading her Peter Rabbit?”

“Sorry,” muttered Anthony biting his lip, “I won’t do it anymore.”

“I’m only joking,” chuckled Simon.

“But if you could write some down for me,” whispered Simon so Niki couldn’t hear, “that would help a load.”


	71. Chapter 71

After Midnight Mass, Anthony, Mark and Athene had stayed up half the rest of the night chatting excitedly about Christmas that day.

It was for this reason that Athene and Anthony were snuggled up next to each other in Anthony’s bed, whilst Mark was sprawled out in his own bed taking up the whole double bed as usual.

Niki poked her head around the door excitedly, followed closely behind by Simon who was carrying baby Michael.

Niki stood between the two beds trying to decide which one to wake up first before her face split into a grin and she pounced on Mark.

“Jesus Christ!” grumbled Mark burying himself under the duvet.

“Control that thing Simon, it’s far too early!”

Niki shrugged and leapt on Anthony and Athene instead.

“Hmm?” mumbled Anthony as Athene blinked drowsily and somewhat confused.

“Uncle Tony!” beamed Niki, “Aunty Athy!”

“Good morning princess Nicole,” said Anthony yawning widely.

“Do you know what today is?” asked Athene.

“Is it somebodies’ birthday?”

“Baby Jesus!” yelled Niki.

“So it is!” said Anthony dramatically.

“Is it somebody else’s birthday as well though?” asked Simon sitting down on the end of the bed.

Niki shook her head confused.

“Isn’t a little girl turning two today?” asked Simon.

“ME!” yelled Niki her eyes wild with excitement.

“Is it your birthday Niki?” asked Athene.

“And here was I thinking it was Uncle Marky’s,” chuckled Anthony.

“Someone say my name?” mumbled a disembodied voice from underneath three blankets and a duvet on Mark’s bed.

“You two wake that idiot up,” said Simon, “we’ve still got to wake up Uncle Nick, and Aunty Izzy.”

“Have fun with that,” said Anthony laughing as they got out of bed and pulled on their dressing gowns.

“You ready Athens?” asked Anthony beaming.

“With you I’m ready to do anything,” said Athene giving him a long kiss.

They both ran across the room barefoot and jumped onto Mark’s bed to start pulling off the covers.

“You needn’t bother waking me up,” said Mark glaring at them both.

“You two flirting with each other is so sick making if I did go back to sleep, I’d be haunted by nightmares.”

“I’ll go put you on a nice pot of coffee,” said Anthony ruffling his brother’s hair.

“Get out of here you fucking!”

But Anthony and Athene never heard the end of Mark’s sentence as they had legged it out of the door and slammed it behind them.

Athene and Anthony ran downstairs laughing. 

“It’s almost as if he has a split personality,” giggled Athene as she put on the coffee.

“A grumpy git before the caffeine, and an excitable puppy for the rest of the day,” agreed Anthony.

Anthony helped Athene get started on the rounds of endless toast. As they had to celebrate Christmas and Niki’s birthday, Christmas was in the morning and the birthday party was that afternoon.

Therefore, they were going to be eating toast whilst everyone opened their presents.

“Is there anyone in?” called a voice from out in the corridor.

“Uncle Davy!” Athene half screamed running into the hallway.

Her Uncle Davy was standing there for once not in his uniform, with a large bag of presents that he had just put down.

“Hi there Cariad!” he chuckled lifting her up.

“If you get any bigger, I’ll have to stop this,” he sighed putting her back down on the ground.

“How’s work?” asked Athene carrying the presents through to the sitting room, her Uncle limping behind her.

“Busy, I’ve never seen so much paperwork.”

Athene looked slightly guilty for a moment.

“Now don’t look like that,” said Major Llewelyn firmly, “I’d do paperwork for eternity if it meant you didn’t have to worry about me being at the front.”

Athene nodded and gave her Uncle a quick hug before she went to go and help Anthony with the toast.

Ten minutes later, the whole household where sat around the fire that Nick had just built with toast and cups of tea and coffee. 

Mark was looking very grumpy; he was on his second cup of coffee and waiting for his caffeine to kick in.

Niki was sitting on Simon’s lap and looking around excitedly.

“Shall we see what Santa’s brought?” asked Mr Pennington handing out everyone their stockings. There was even one for Major Llewelyn.

The stockings were full of silly things like chocolate coins, boiled sweets and an orange a piece.

Niki was happily sucking away at a candy cane as everyone else was handed out their presents.

Niki got lots of little presents including new toys, and books. But she seemed slightly disappointed, she hadn’t got the present she had wanted from Father Christmas.

“What’s this hiding at the back?” asked Nick dramatically pulling out the last present they had been hiding behind the tree.

He handed a box which was almost the same size as Niki to his goddaughter.

“I wonder what could be in here?” asked Simon helping her pull of the wrapping paper and lift the lid off the box.

Inside the box was a beautiful china doll whose eyes were currently shut as she was asleep. The doll had auburn coloured hair and tiny freckles on her cheeks, and she was wearing a beautiful pink party dress.

“It’s Aunty Athy!” exclaimed Niki hugging the doll close.

“You have no idea how long it took me to find that doll in Hamleys,” muttered Celia to Athene.

“She wanted to call it Athene, so she clearly misses you and Anthony when you’re aware.”

“I think that the real Athene is much more beautiful of course,” chuckled Anthony.

“Ah yes,” nodded Simon knowingly, “but Athene can’t open and shut her eyes when you move her.”

“No, she can do that on her own,” drawled Mark, “because she’s not a doll!”

“She is gorgeous,” said Athene stroking the dolls hair.

“She’s mine!” said Niki hugging the doll close.

“Bonne,” said Isabelle getting up, “who wants to help with Christmas lunch?”

“I’m coming,” laughed Athene shaking her head followed by Anthony, Celia and Nick.

They didn’t just have to get the Christmas lunch made, they also had to prepare Niki’s birthday tea. The cake was already made and decorated, and the jelly was setting in the fridge, but they had to make the sandwiches, and cook the sausage rolls.

Mark was keeping Michael and Niki entertained, whilst Mr Pennington and Simon were preparing for the party.

Just before twelve o’clock, Mr and Mrs Bell arrived with a Christmas cake. The Fforbes Hamilton arrived soon after and everyone was carrying presents which were all hidden in the coat cupboard with the other birthday presents until after lunch.

Christmas lunch was just as jolly and cheerful as usual. Niki was so busy pulling crackers and eating mince pies, that she had completely forgotten that it was her birthday.

“Right,” said Mr Pennington with more than a hint of finality, “Christmas is over.”

“No!” protested Niki bursting into tears.

“Come on silly,” chuckled Simon picking up Niki and carrying her through to the sitting room.

There was a very large parcel in the middle of the room.

“Only one present?” asked Niki confused.

“No of course not,” chuckled Simon.

“We’re going to play pass the parcel.”

Everyone sat down in a circle, some people such as Major Llewelyn had to pull up chairs as they couldn’t sit on the floor.

Mark set up his record player which rather than playing Teddy Bear’s picnic or one of Mark’s regular Frank Sinatra or rock albums, started playing one of his newest albums Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Helms. 

It was a little bit more country than Mark usually listened to, but it had been Christmas number one in the Pennington house at least.

They passed the parcel around the circle to the music, and occasionally Mark would stop the record and they would take off a layer of wrapping paper.

Under each layer of wrapping paper was a quality street chocolate. 

Soon they got to the end of the game, and Mark made sure that it stopped for the last time on Niki.

“Well go on darling,” said Celia encouragingly as Niki tried to pass the parcel onto Michael.

Niki beamed and ripped at the paper and found a pretty pink party dress, exactly like the one that her new doll Athene was wearing.

“Dolly dress!” she exclaimed holding it up.

“Would you look at that?” said Simon in astonishment.

“How’d you know?” asked Niki.

“Well, you see Santa Clause is a very clever man,” said Simon knowingly.

“He knew that you wanted a doll for Christmas, so he told us what her dress would look like and told Mummy and I where we could buy one exactly like it.”

“I love you Daddy!” beamed Niki giving Simon a huge hug.

“It looks like that’s the only present you’re getting little lady,” said Uncle Davy.

“That’s ok,” said Niki still looking fairly disappointed.

Mr Pennington had slipped out of the room at the end of pass the parcel to go and get changed.

There was a loud ringing of the bell.

“I wonder who that could be?” asked Julie.

“All your friends are here,” shrugged Mr Bell, “I can’t think who it could be.”

“Shall we go find out?” asked Athene taking Niki’s hand.

They all went to go and answer the door, Nick and Izzy at the back trying not to laugh, and Anthony recording the whole thing on his camera.

Athene helped Niki open the door, and there was indeed someone standing on the doorstep with a bulging bag of presents, and he was wearing a red and white suit, and a white bushy beard.

“Santa Clause!” yelled Niki.

“Hello young lady!” exclaimed Santa, who was really Mr Pennington in a costume.

“I heard that somebody here has a birthday today?”

“Me! Me!” yelled Niki shoving her hand in the air and jumping up and down.

“You’re Nicole Charlotte Pennington?” asked Santa.

“Yes!” beamed Niki.

“Are you going to invite Father Christmas in sweetheart?” asked Mrs Bell trying not to laugh out loud.

Santa Clause went through to the sitting room, where Mark had been clearing up from pass the parcel.

“And who’s this?” asked Mark in his most dramatic voice.

“Santa Clause!”

Mark did a quick double take as he took a proper look at Father Christmas.

“You know you’re right!”

Father Christmas sat down on the sofa, and Niki sat down on his lap.

“Now then young lady, I’ve had a very busy night as I’m sure you know. But I’m very good friends with your Daddy, he asked me to come here as a special favour to him on the way back to the North Pole.”

Niki’s face lit up as she beamed at her Daddy. He must be a very important person if he can get Father Christmas come to her birthday party!

“I’m afraid I can’t stay very long, as I’ve had a very long night. But if you’re a very good girl I might come back next year.”

Niki looked upset that Santa had to leave so soon.

“As you’ve been such a very good girl this year, all your friends and family have got you lots of presents. Which are in that bag right over there.”

Niki looked at the huge bag for a second her eyes shining with joy. She gave Santa Clause one more huge hug before leaping off his lap and going to attack her presents.

Father Christmas left, and Mr Pennington came back in a few minutes later and Niki didn’t even realise he had left in the first place.

Niki had just reached a large box, which Simon had to help her lift out of the bag.

“Who’s this one from?” asked Simon who had been helping unwrap all the presents, whilst Anthony was busy the camera.

“It says it’s from Uncle Tony,” said Simon, “shall we see what’s in here?”

Niki nodded as she ripped the paper off the box and found a set of books.

“Of course, you’ve bought her bloody books,” said Mark as if nothing could have been more obvious.

“The Chronicles of Narnia,” Simon read off the box set.

“There’s lots of lovely creatures in those books like dwarves and talking animals,” explained Anthony.

“Hobitses?” asked Niki hopefully.

“No, but the man who wrote these books is friends with Mr Tolkien.”

“Also those books are lot more suitable for a child of your age,” chuckled Mr Pennington.

“Thank you!” said Niki giving Anthony such a big hug he nearly dropped his camera.

The next parcel they pulled out was large soft and squashy.

“This one is from Aunty Athy,” Simon said taking off the card.

It was a crocheted granny square blanket, made out of different shades of pink and purple wool. It was single bed sized so Niki could use it as she got older.

“It’s beautiful Athene,” said Celia as Niki stroked it to her face.

“The last few presents, are a bit big,” explained Nick as Mark helped him carry in the last of the presents, “so Santa couldn’t them in his bag.”

One of the presents was a huge box, which unsurprisingly Niki dove on straight away.

“It’s from Mummy and Daddy!” laughed Celia as her daughter attacked the wrapping paper.

On the top of the box were two books, Alice in Wonderland, and Alice Through the Looking Glass.

“Thank you!” beamed Niki.

“There’s more in the box,” laughed Simon moving aside the tissue paper.

There was a second china doll in the box, like the first one. But this doll had long blonde hair and was wearing a blue dress with a white lace pinafore.

“Like me!” she exclaimed comparing her and the dolls hair.

“She’s also like the little girl in the book,” explained Julie.

“This little doll already has a name, her names Alice,” said Celia, “she’s in your book.”

“There’s only one present left,” said Simon shaking his head.

“And it weighs a flipping ton!” yelled Mark as Nick helped him carrying it in.

“Mark!” scolded Mrs Bell glaring at him.

“There is another F word I could have used,” he threatened raising his eyebrows.

Mark and Nick placed a huge cradle carefully down in front of Niki.

“For the baby?” asked Niki curiously looking from her Mummy’s tummy to the cradle.

“No, it’s for you,” laughed Celia.

“From Granny and Grandpa,” beamed Mr Bell.

Niki looked into the cradle curiously, it was huge, she could sleep in there herself if she had to. It was a proper bed, with pillows and little lace sheets.

“My new bed?” asked Niki still somewhat confused.

“No Cariad,” laughed Major Llewelyn.

“It’s for your dollies,” said Athene demonstrating by putting Niki’s two dolls in the cradle and tucking them in, “so they can sleep when you’re not playing with them.”

Niki looked ecstatic as she rocked the cradle back and forth, so she could put her dolls to sleep.

“Do we want some party games now?” asked Mr Pennington once the paper had been cleared away.

“Yes!” said Niki jumping up and down excitedly.

They ended up teaching her how to play musical chairs, but by the time they moved on to musical statues Mark had enough of Bobby Helms, so they played musical statues to Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock.

Even Michael joined in with the dancing, holding tightly onto Mark’s hands as Mark helped him dance and Nick played the music.

Then they played the biggest game of Hide and Seek using the whole house. Nick was it, and found Mrs Bell having a cup of tea in the kitchen and was found within seconds. Anthony was found next who was sitting reading Virgil in the laundry cupboard. He found everyone else, but Athene and Niki seemed to have disappeared.

Nick was about to give up when he checked the attic for the third time when he heard a giggling. He pulled out a torch and checked behind several boxes of old manuscripts in the furthest darkest corner of the attic, and surprise, surprise there was Athene and Niki laughing like mad.

“At least tell me we won,” giggled Athene as she brushed the worst of the dust and cobwebs off her clothes.

“Oh yeah you won, I found everyone else ages ago. I even found Mark and Julie making out in the garden shed.”

“They weren’t?” laughed Athene.

“Well I presume they had be, they were hiding in there together for over half an hour.”

“Fair enough,” she laughed shaking her head as they went back downstairs.

After that they had birthday cake, and everyone was absolutely exhausted. 

Before Niki went to bed though, she wanted to read some of Alice in Wonderland.

“Shall I read?” asked Simon as Niki got comfortable on Major Llewelyn’s lap with her two new dolls.

“No! Uncle Tony!”

“Why me?” asked Anthony confused as he took the book.

“You can do all the voices.”

“I can do all the voices,” protested Mark.

“Yeah, but Anthony can do good ones,” smirked Julie.


	72. Chapter 72

Charlie was stood at the front of a crowded classroom with Athene her next in command. Julie was casually leaning against the teachers desk next to them, ready to step up if she needed to. 

“Right ladies,” said Charlie looking around at the girls, “those boys have won the challenge cup for the last two years! But this year that is going to change!”

“How?” asked one of the fifth formers, “they always beat us in the obstacle course, the school quiz is usually a tie between Athene and Anthony, they’ve won the rugby every year but once.”

“And,” complained Lizzie, “there’s not even going to be a Home Ec event this year, because the boys said it was unfair!”

“And what has the Home Ec been replaced with?” asked Julie beaming.

“Tennis,” shrugged a fourth form girl.

“And the boys don’t know one end of the racket from the other,” said Athene.

“But what about the obstacle course?” 

“And the rugby!”

“The obstacle course has been changed, and the rugby we’re going to work on.”

“How has it been changed?” asked Diana a lower Fifth girl who was in the cadets with Charlie.

“Well only two people have to enter per team. You have to do the obstacle course, then run the 1000 metres from the course to the swimming pool, and then do five lengths each way of the pool freestyle. Whichever team finishes first wins, but both have to finish.”

“That sounds like Hell on earth,” groaned Julie.

“That sounds amazing!” beamed Diana.

“If anyone can do it we can Di!” said Charlie shaking Diana’s hand.

“And as for the rugby,” said Athene, “all it takes is a bit of practise.”

“We’re going to lose!” sighed a lower fifth girl.

“Again,” agreed an upper fourth girl.

“We are not going to lose!” said Athene taking over from Charlie.

“Do you lot not even remember why we started this in the first place?”

“The boys think they’re better than us! If we just give in, we’ll prove them right!”

“But what if we don’t win?” said Lucy.

“Then we try our hardest and lose with dignity!” said Charlie proudly.

“We are British! If you don’t lose with dignity, you lose your dignity!”

“What?” asked Julie confused.

“Never mind,” muttered Charlie, “to the battlefield!”

“We’re not going to die, are we?” asked a terrified Third Former.

“No,” laughed Athene, “we’re going to play some rugby!”

The girls practised for the whole month of March, practising on the rugby pitch in the torrential rain or perfecting their tennis serve.

One the morning of the last day before the end of term, Athene woke up and looked at the window nervously. She had been hoping and praying for good weather today for the last month.

Her prayers had been answered, the sun was shining brightly and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

“Charlie!” she called jumping down from her bunk, “Julie!”

“Hmmm?” mumbled Julie.

“Wake up!” beamed Athene “we’ve got some boys to beat!”

The three girls jumped out of bed and pulled on their sports kit before they ran downstairs to start knocking on the doors to wake up the other girls.

As the majority of the events this year were sports events the girls team were trying to be in the best shape possible. This meant waking up at the six o’clock and going for a run for an hour every morning whilst the boys had a lie in.

“Why do we have to be up so early?” grumbled Lucy as she stretched before the run.

“It’s all going to be worth it this afternoon when we win,” said Diana.

“If we don’t win I think I might just give up!” muttered Julie.

“Never give up!” said Charlie.

“For we are British!” said Julie dramatically.

“And we shall never surrender!” yelled all the girls.

“Let’s run then!” said Charlie leading the way.

It was a very packed schedule, there was the tennis tournament and the school quiz that took up the whole morning and had to be run at the same time as each other.

The girls beat the boys at the tennis when Julie and one of the Fifth Formers won the final doubles match.

The quiz however, was close as usual, and Athene and Anthony were the two team captains.

“Surprise surprise,” said Mr Mitchell shaking his head, “we’ve got a tie again!”

“You get a tie every ruddy year!” yelled Mr Davies.

“Athene, Anthony you know the drill.”

Anthony and Athene nodded at each other as they got ready for the final question.

“This year, the final question is maths.”

Anthony looked relived.

“With Roman Numerals.”

His face fell, he could never get the numerals right.

“Your question is XV multiplied by XXXIII.”

Anthony looked terrified as he quickly tried to jot down the answer before converting it into Roman numerals, before buzzing in his answer.

“Um, 495 DXCV?” he asked nervously.

“That’s not quite right Anthony,” said Mr Mitchell shaking his head.

“Athene?”

“CDXCV, 495.”

“That is correct Athene, the answer you gave me Anthony was 595.”

“This means that the girls are the winners of the quiz!”

“Well done Athene,” laughed Anthony shaking her hand.

“You do know I wouldn’t have got that answer if you hadn’t got it wrong by one letter?”

“Yeah, I know, I know,” chuckled Anthony.

After a quick lunch, everyone gathered to watch the first ever St. Christopher’s triathlon.

Charlie and Diana were standing by the start line with mud as war paint.

“See you on the other side Charlie!” laughed Harry.

“We’re going to thrash you!” snarled Henry who was still angry about losing the tennis final.

At this moment Mr Davies came to the starting line with the starting pistol.

“On your marks get set!”

There was a loud bang as the starting pistol was fired and the girls raced across the line.

Charlie and Diana helped each other around the obstacle course, so even if the boys were a bit ahead of them, it wasn’t by much, and this event wasn’t won by one person, it wasn’t over until the whole team finished.

Charlie and Diana managed to make up most of the time they had lost during the run though, so by the time they had stripped down to their swimming costumes, the boys were only half a length of the swimming pool ahead of them.

Although the boys may have been better on the obstacle course, Harry was about the same standard in the swimming as Charlie, so Harry finished half a length ahead of her.

But Henry, although he had a big mouth and he was quite athletic, he was only an average swimmer. Which is why Diana finished a length and a half ahead before him.

“We did it Di!” yelled Charlie jumping up and down hugging Diana.

They were both jumping up and down in soaking wet swimming costumes and Henry was furious as he got out having finished his last lap.

“You must have cheated!”

“Or maybe we just practised,” suggested Diana as they went to go and get ready for the rugby match.

The girls had already won three events, so whether they won the rugby or not they were going to win the cup. 

The boys though were adamant that they were going to win at least one of the events that day, which led to a large amount of cheating from the boys team, passing the ball forward rather than backwards when the ref wasn’t watching and tripping up the girls on purpose.

There was thirty seconds left, and the boys were winning 30 points to the girls 29. 

But the girls had a kick conversion, if Charlie kicked this ball over the post, they’d win.

Charlie looked at the mud splattered Harry who gave her a firm nod. The other boys might be annoyed if they didn’t win, but Harry didn’t care.

Charlie nodded at him and kicked the ball straight over the post. 

Mr Davies blew his whistle.

“The final score is 31-29 to the girls team. This makes the girls the indisputable winners of the Challenge Cup 1958!”

There were several groans of disappointment, but they were barely audible over the roars and screams of celebrations from the girls. They had claimed back their trophy and weren’t going to let it out of their sight again!


	73. Chapter 73

Anthony had been so excited for today that he had hardly slept all night.

It was only five o’clock in the morning, so he wasn’t going to have to get up for hours. But today, Major Llewelyn had taken the day off work and was going to drive Athene and Anthony up to Oxford to look around at the colleges they could be studying at.

He was looking forward to getting away from the house for a few days, because no matter how much he loved Mark he could sometimes get on his nerves particularly at the moment. 

Mark had met up with a Mr Schuller last week. Mr Schuller had flown in from Hollywood last week to see Mark in the musical and had offered him a film contract. Mr Pennington only had one condition; Mark had to finish his A Levels so had to wait a year.

Mark had had a more than slightly over inflated head recently which meant he was flouncing around the house as if owned the place, telling anyone and everyone who would listen about how he was going to be a huge star. But one of the only people who would listen for long, was Michael, firstly because he was a baby and so couldn’t run away very fast, and secondly because he liked Mark.

He got out of bed to go and read for a bit; he was so excited he couldn’t sleep. He got dressed in a pair of trousers and the jumper Athene had given for his last birthday without even turning on the light before picking up his copy of Fellowship of the Ring on his way out the door.

Anthony was on his way to the cupboard, when he bumped into Simon in a dressing gown.

“Morning Tons,” muttered Simon drowsily who was carrying a very grumpy Michael.

“What you doing up so early?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” pointed out Anthony.

“Young sir here is having trouble sleeping, he is teething aren’t you little one?”

Michael merely glared at his father.

“He hasn’t been sleeping well, and we didn’t want to disturb Mummy. Mummy’s going to be having another baby in three months, isn’t she?”

Michael however was too busy biting his teething ring to care about what his father was talking about.

“Why are you up so early though Tons?”

“We’re going to Oxford today,” said Anthony blushing slightly.

“And you’re so excited that you can hardly sleep?”

Anthony chuckled and nodded.

“The question is though, are you excited to get away from Mark for the day, or to see to the magic that is Oxford?”

“Mark’s not that annoying,” Anthony started.

Simon gave him a meaningful look.

“He doesn’t mean it,” he flustered.

“And he’s your twin brother, and you love him, and you wouldn’t say anything against him. But Mark can sometimes be a pain in the ass.”

“Language,” muttered Anthony eyeing Michael.

“He doesn’t care, he’s not even one, still struggling with the difference between Uncle Marky and Uncle Tony.”

“Besides,” whispered Simon looking considerably relieved, “he’s fallen back to sleep.”

Anthony chuckled as Simon took Michael back to bed. Anthony headed through to the linen cupboard to try and get some reading done.

He realised as he climbed up onto his shelf, that he gotten too tall for his shelf. He now had to had to practically pull his long legs into his chest just to fit on. He had grown a lot in the last eight years since he had started hiding out here.

Clearly either he needed to find a way to shrink, or find somewhere different not to be disturbed in this madhouse. Maybe he could try reading up in the attic instead, Mark and Julie didn’t practise their tap in the attic anywhere near as often as they used to.

Or maybe he could just read up in Athene’s room, the room always managed to smell of her even when she hadn’t been there for months, the scent of her light lavender perfume always lingered.

Just as he was thinking about moving up to her room, he heard a car pull up on the driveway outside.

“Athene!” he yelled scrambling down from his cramped reading shelf and rushing down the stairs.

Anthony made it downstairs and outside before Athene could even ring the doorbell.

“Somebodies a bit keen,” chortled Major Llewelyn as Anthony picked up Athene and swung her in the air.

“I’ve missed you,” he muttered softly putting her back down.

“I only saw you three days ago when you came to visit,” laughed Athene.

“Can I drive?” asked Anthony somewhat hopefully.

Major Llewelyn looked slightly reluctant. It was a three-hour drive to Oxford, and his leg never coped well with a long drive. But then again, he didn’t want the car to crash.

“I’ve passed my test,” said Anthony quickly, “with flying colours!”

He nodded as he passed Anthony the keys.

“But one mistake and we’re switching drivers,” he said firmly.

Anthony could hardly believe his luck, not only were they going to Oxford, but he got to drive!

Athene got in the back of the car, and Major Llewelyn unfolded the map and gave Anthony the instructions carefully on how to get to Oxford.

Three hours, and no accidents later and there they were. Oxford.

It was a Saturday so as they drove into the centre of the city where the colleges where it got more and more crowded. 

Students cycling around on bikes to get to the library or to the shops. Lecturers and professors were wandering around in the academic gowns chatting to one another at leisure.

Anthony found somewhere to park the car, and they started to wander around, milling in with the other students.

Some people were running past on the way to rugby practise, there even seemed to be an impromptu cricket match in the middle of a small area of grass next to one of the buildings.

There also seemed to be several people reading under a tree.

Unless Anthony was much mistaken they were reading the Fellowship of the Ring. As they passed, Athene heard them talking in a strange language that she didn’t understand, it certainly wasn’t Latin.

“S Suilad,” said Anthony nervously in case he was mistaken.

“S Suilad S mellon,” said a girl with dark hair nodding at him.

“What?” asked Major Llewelyn.

“They’re speaking elvish,” said Athene hardly believing it herself. She had only heard Anthony talk like that when reading Tolkien.

“Welcome to the J. R. R. Tolkien appreciation society,” said a boy with blonde hair getting up from under the tree and shaking Anthony’s hand.

“You two students?”

“Prospective students,” shrugged Anthony, “we’re looking around, we’re in Lower Sixth.”

“I’m Anthony, and this is my girlfriend Athene, and her Uncle David.”

“I’m George,” said the one with the blonde hair, “that’s Kate, and the one with the elf ears is Sarah, although she prefers to go by Legolas.”

“Gimli and Gandalf would have been here,” shrugged Sarah, “but they’ve got a cricket match.”

“So, what do you think of Oxford so far?” asked a girl who seemed to be wearing a pair of pointy elf ears and had braided her brown hair into a half up.

“Well, we’ve only just got here,” giggled Athene, “but it’s beautiful!”

“And the Tolkien club is just an extra bonus,” chuckled Anthony.

“Fellow Tolkien appreciators,” said George, “may we have the honour of giving you the tour of our fair city?”

“He means do you want us to show you around,” laughed Kate.

“Wow that would be amazing!” said Athene.

They walked around the campus, being shown all the points of interest. The three students showed them their favourite parts of the campus. George was keen to show them all the best trees to read under, and Sarah pointed out the best pubs, Kate on the other hand showed them where to find the library and the professors offices.

They had to stop fairly often, as Major Llewelyn couldn’t walk to far on his bad leg without needing to sit down, but that was alright because Anthony and Athene had endless questions.

Which college should they apply for, how did the admission process work, what would be a good back up choice?

“Well the first question is what do you want to study?” asked George.

“Classics,” said Athene and Anthony without a second thought.

“We’ll hand over to you then Kate,” said Sarah.

“Well, I go to Brasenose college, it’s quite an old college, but the professors are really great and the buildings are magnificent.”

“All the buildings are magnificent,” interjected George.

“I can show a bit of favouritism can’t I?”

“As for the admissions,” said George, “you’ll be asked for interviews in about November. If you pass that, you’ll get asked to come back for the entrance exam in December. If you pass that, you’ll get given an offer, and you have to get certain grades to be accepted.”

“Sometimes though you can get an unconditional offer,” said Sarah, “but those are exceptionally rare.”

“As for a back up option,” said George, “Exeter?”

“Or Lampeter!” said Kate.

“Lampeter’s awesome! It’s really tiny, so the classes are quite small, and you get loads of time with the lecturers.”

“That’s in Wales isn’t it?” asked Major Llewelyn glad to actually be able to offer something to the conversation.

“Ceredigion?”

“Yeah,” nodded Kate, “I would have gone there if I hadn’t got the offer from Oxford.”

“Now we’ve talked about all the boring stuff,” said Sarah, “let’s get down to business.”

“We’ve already got a Legolas, a Gimli, and a Gandalf, and an Arwen and Aragorn.”

“If you two join,” agreed George, “who would you want to be?”

“You haven’t a got a Bilbo?” asked Anthony confused.

“Or a Frodo?” agreed Athene.

“Who wants to be a Hobbit when you can be something cooler?” asked Sarah.

“Me,” said Anthony and Athene simultaneously.

“Welcome to our ranks, young hobbits, Bilbo and Frodo,” said George.

By the time they left to head home, Anthony felt more at home in Oxford amongst the huge libraries and his new friends then he ever felt he had at St Christophers.


	74. Chapter 74

Athene was sat up in her bedroom with Isabelle, Celia, Niki and Isabelle’s mother Madame Visage. 

The newest Pennington baby, Timothy who was a week old was sleeping in his basket which was on Athene’s bed, along with a wedding dress, a bridesmaid dress, and a tiny flower girl outfit.

Celia and Madame Visage were helping with the hair and make up, Madame Visage could do magic with a make up brush.

Athene’s dress this time, was a soft blue with a lighter blue floaty material which was almost see through on top, which she was going to wear over her petticoat.

Niki’s dress was quite similar but with a lot more frill and bows, because as she was only two and a half the more bows the prettier, she felt.

They were trying to keep the hair and make-up quite simple. So Athene’s hair was pulled into a ponytail which was tied with a ribbon made from the similar material as her dress.

Niki’s blonde curls had now reached to just below her shoulders, her hair ribbon was tied around her hair, so that Niki had more than a slight resemblance to Alice in Wonderland.

“I look like Alice!” beamed Niki looking in the mirror.

Niki had been reading Alice in Wonderland with her parents. She like Alice in Wonderland, and Narnia, but she still preferred Tolkien.

“Can I take Alice and Athene to the wedding?” said Niki playing with her dolls as she waited for her turn for the make up.

“I don’t think so darling,” said Celia, “they haven’t been invited.”

Niki looked outraged.

“Hang on a second darling,” said Athene, “they haven’t been invited, but I have made them bridesmaid dresses.”

She pulled out two doll sized dresses, one was a version of Athene’s dress, and the other was like Niki’s.

Athene helped Niki dress the dolls whilst Celia and Madame Visage helped Isabelle with the make-up.

Athene’s make up was quite subtle, as she didn’t need much in the first place, only a bit of lipstick, and some silvery blue eyeshadow.

Niki was allowed the smallest amount of light pink lipstick, but Athene did let her use some of her perfume.

Athene was helping Niki get into her dress, as Mark and Anthony poked their heads around the door.

Celia, and Izzy were still wearing their dressing gowns, but Athene was not, she was halfway through getting changed. All she had on was her petticoat and her bra.

Mark’s face lit up as he looked at the scene. This was the best thing he had seen in years!

“Haven’t you idiots ever heard of knocking?” snapped Celia as Athene tried to hide and Anthony looked mortified.

“They were wondering how much longer you’d be,” said Anthony shielding his view of his half naked girlfriend with his hand.

“Ten minutes,” sighed Isabelle.

“Now get out,” said Madame Visage, “or we’ll make it twenty.”

“Get out!” agreed Niki nodding her head.

“The lady has spoken,” said Mark bowing to Niki deeply before leaving the room backwards.

“Espece de imbecile!” yelled Isabelle as Mark left.

“I’m afraid my French was never up to much,” said Celia.

“Stupid idiot,” said Athene as she finally got her dress on now the boys were gone.

Once the girls were finally ready, they head down the stairs.

“Is Nick already gone?” asked Celia nervously.

“At the church and waiting like everyone else,” said Mark offering his arm to Isabelle.

Mark led Isabelle out to the driveway, where Chloe and Nigel Mark and Anthony’s cars had been dressed up for the wedding. Chloe Mark’s two-seater was covered in ribbons and flowers and Nigel had been freshly polished and had a ribbon on the bonnet.

Mark helped Isabelle into the car, and the others along with Monsieur Visage got into Anthony’s car.

When the procession of cars got to the church five minutes away, the church car park was practically full, apart from the two spots reserved for the last two wedding cars.

Celia, Mark, Anthony and Madame Visage rushed into the church. Athene straightened Niki’s dress, as Monsieur Visage talked to Isabelle.

“You ready Ma Cherie?” asked Monsieur Visage.

“Oui papa,” nodded Isabelle giving her father a kiss on both cheeks.

Monsieur Visage gave a brief nod to the organist, and they started playing the processional march.

Niki went first and scattered the flowers down the aisle and stopped when she reached Celia who was crouching down at the end of the aisle waiting for her.

Athene went next, followed by the Visage’s. 

Nick gave Anthony a nervous glance for a second, and Anthony gave him a double thumbs up and nodded encouragingly. 

Simon and Athene stood on either side whilst the couple exchanged their vows.

As Athene stood at the front of the church, she could swear that Anthony winked at her from the front row. She had a feeling that they were thinking the same thing, in five years or so, it could be Anthony and her at the front of this church being joined forever.

The ceremony finished and the wedding party lined up for the wedding photos. In the family photographs, Athene was standing between Mark and Anthony.

“It’s funny isn’t it?” chuckled Mark.

“Even when you’re in heels, Tony is still over a foot taller than you.”

Celia walloped Mark with a good hit from her handbag, and Simon swiped at his head.

“Hey no fair!” shouted Mark, “two against one.”

“Behave the lot of you,” sighed Mr Pennington as the photographer got ready again.

After the photos it was time for Izzy to throw the bouquet before they all went back to the house. But Athene, Mark and Anthony were ready, Athene had taken off her heels, and they were standing at the front of the crowd.

“Three two one!” called Isabelle as she threw it as high as she could

“Ready, ready up!” called Athene as signal for the boys to lift in the air for what would normally be a line up for a rugby ball.

The flowers landed right in her hands before the boys brought her back down to the ground.

“Well played,” smirked Julie with her arms folded against her chest. She had wanted to catch the bouquet herself.

One of the most entertaining parts of the wedding reception, was getting all the cars parked.

Mr Fforbes Hamilton with a pair of wellies on with his morning suit, along with one of his farmhands was directed all the cars onto a field opposite the Pennington’s. This was entertaining not just because of the traffic, but because another particularly dashing young farmhand called Roger was helping down from the cars and out of the muddy field, by carrying the ladies in their heels back out to the road.

Athene noticed that Roger, who didn’t look any more than about eighteen and must have looked quite dashing out of his overalls was flirting with Julie, and Julie wasn’t stopping him. Mark clearly either didn’t hear Roger or was just ignoring him.

Mark was throwing Julie around in the air and doing all the dips and tricks as usual, so people knew to make space for them. 

Anthony and Athene danced in the outskirts of the crowd, much less energetically but with just as enthusiasm. Besides this way, Athene wouldn’t have to go to hospital in the morning with a broken leg from being dropped.

Simon was waltzing around the dance floor with Niki on his hip.

“And now!” called Mr Fforbes Hamilton down the microphone, “it’s time for the Ladies Excuse Me!”

Roger had gotten changed out of his overalls into a his best suit and he tapped Mark on the shoulder and Mark graciously obliged and let Roger dance with Julie to Blue Moon.

At about seven o’clock when the reception had been going on for a few hours Nick and Isabelle came up to the microphone.

“I’m afraid it’s time for us to go, see you all the next month,” said Nick.

“So Arrivederci, Ciao.”

“Auvoir,” said Izzy.

“We’ll say hi to Europe for you,” chuckled Nick.

The guests waved goodbye to the happy couple, as they drove away. Even though Nick and Izzy had left the dancing which went until well gone midnight. 

There weren’t any complaints from the neighbours about the loud music, because the few neighbours that the Pennington’s did have, had been invited to the reception.

Eventually Anthony carried Athene up to her bedroom because her feet hurt so much from the dancing and the heels, at gone one o’clock.

“Goodnight sweetheart,” he whispered.

“See you in the morning,” she muttered drowsily.


	75. Chapter 75

Anthony was helping Athene in the kitchen making pancakes. Anthony was mixing the batter, but he knew if he tried to flip a pancake, he’d get it wrong.

Nick and Isabelle were away for a month, so everyone was helping out where they could with the cooking and all mucking in. Mr Pennington and Simon’s contributions were usually bringing home fish and chips after work. Mark’s job was to keep Michael and Niki busy and entertained so they didn’t keep on getting under foot.

“I’m glad that at least one of my sons can cook,” chuckled Mr Pennington as he tucked into his breakfast.

“Thanks Dad,” beamed Anthony as Simon came in with Niki and Michael and he put them in their highchairs.

Simon looked exhausted, and Celia who followed afterwards with Timothy looked even more tired. Having three children under the age of three was clearly starting to take its toll on Simon and Celia physically. 

Celia was half asleep in her plate of breakfast, and Simon was trying to drink a cup of coffee with one hand and feed Michael with the other.

“Niki?” asked Anthony, “would you like to go out for a treat today?”

“Yes!” beamed Niki giving him a very syrupy kiss, she always liked doing things with her Uncle Tony.

“I’ve heard they’re showing that new Disney princess film at the cinema,” continued Athene, “Sleeping Beauty, why don’t Uncle Tony and I take you and Michael to go and see it?”

“Yes yes please!” she screamed practically jumping up and down in her chair.

“And then Mummy and Daddy can have a nice day off, and Uncle Marky can look after baby Timmy.”

Mark looked at Anthony over his cup of coffee. Mark had agreed to look after no little squirts today. It was Saturday, he was expecting his new film magazine, he was going to go through it with Julie. 

“Well Timmy,” said Mark, “looks like today you learn the difference between a Frank Sinatra and a Bing Crosby.”

Simon could hardly believe his ears, but decided to jump at the chance before anyone changed their minds.

“Cels,” he said nudging her gently, “wake up darling.”

“Hmm?” she mumbled.

“We can go back to bed,” he told her.

“Oh,” said Celia blinking and getting up.

“Well goodnight everyone,” laughed Simon as they went back to bed.

“Bye bye Mummy!” called Michael.

“Night night Mummy!” giggled Niki.

Not long after this there was the sound out in the hallway.

“Post!” yelled Mark rushing into the corridor.

He came back with his Dad’s paper, a couple of bills, his film magazine and two letters.

“Here you go,” said Mark handing Athene and Anthony their letters.

Anthony opened his letter in confusion. The only person he got regular correspondence from was sitting right next to him.

A letter fell out.

“Dear Anthony,

Out of the seven male prefects in your year, the choice for Head Boy this year was not a difficult one to make. 

You are always enthusiastic about your studies, and that example does rub off on the younger students, and your own classmates as well. As Athene and you work so hard, but get the results come exam time, it shows to your classmates that if they strive for it they too can achieve top marks.

You’re also very involved in the school activities, such as the orchestra and always accompanying in the piano for the school musical.

It’s not only that you’re a good role model though, you’ve always had a very good connection with all the students, older and younger. You are always willing to listen to their problems no matter how big or small.

When I talked to all your teachers, they said the same thing.

Congratulations, and enjoy the rest of your holidays,

P. Grainger, Headmaster

Anthony noticed that there was still a badge in the envelope.

His prefect badge had been red, but this was silver and had Head Boy engraved on it.

Anthony looked over to Athene who was holding a similar badge in her hand. Athene was the only female prefect going into the upper sixth, as they only had one per year. This meant that it wasn’t a surprise that Athene got picked to be Head Girl, but Anthony just didn’t make sense.

“What you two got there?” asked Mr Pennington as he finished sorting out the bills.

Anthony and Athene were silent, but Mark looked like all his Christmases had come at once.

“We are not worthy of your presence!” said Mark.

“Fair Lord and Lady, noble rulers over all us humble peasants at St. Christopher’s.”

Mr Pennington just looked even more confused.

“Head Girl and Boy badges,” explained Athene.

“Tony, I have never been more proud of you,” beamed Mr Pennington, “we’ve had prefects, and sports captains, but never a Head Boy.”

“Whereas I am just chopped liver,” sulked Mark.

“No, you’ve got a Hollywood film contract,” said Anthony.

“Oh yeah,” beamed Mark, “so I do.”

“Well I think this deserves some celebrating,” said Mr Pennington, “tonight, nobody is going to cook, we’re going to The Wheatsheaf for dinner!”

“We’re going to the pub?” asked Mark.

“Can I have a pint?”

Mr Pennington seemed to think for a moment.

“Well you do look eighteen,” he whispered.

“Just the one though,” he said firmly.

“You’re the best Dad!”

“Shall we go and get ready for the cinema then?” asked Athene to Niki.

“Can Alice and little Athene come?”

“Well of course they can!”

Athene helped Niki change Alice and Athene into their best party dresses. If Niki had a choice, she wouldn’t go anywhere without her two dolls.

And so, Anthony, Athene, Niki, Michael, the two dolls and Michael’s teddy bear Terry went to the cinema.

They needed three seats, one for Anthony, Michael and Michaels Teddy, one for Athene, and the last one for Niki and her two dolls who were sitting on a cushion so she could see possibly.

They watched the newsreel, and the Mickey Mouse carton before the main feature came on. Sleeping Beauty was so good, that they watched the whole thing twice.

“Did you like the sweetheart?” asked Anthony as they headed home.

Niki didn’t answer.

“I’m sorry did you enjoy the film Princess Aurora?”

“Yes!” beamed Niki.

“I thought you did,” muttered Anthony the car and drove them all home.

When they got back to the house, Simon and Celia had woken up looking much better. They had gotten the sleep that they needed. 

“Hello darlings,” gushed Celia picking up Michael and Niki.

“How was the cinema?” asked Simon.

“She was so pretty,” said Niki.

“Was she now?”

“Yes,” nodded Michael.

“It sounds like we’ll have to go with you some time,” said Simon.

“But as for now,” said Celia, “we hear congratulations are in order?”

Anthony stared down at his shoes and put his hands in his pockets.

“Well done little bro,” chuckled Simon patting him on the back.

“Thanks,” muttered Anthony.

That night the whole household went to the pub down the road, even the Fforbes Hamiltons were invited.

When the drinks were brought out Mr Pennington raised his glass.

“To Anthony and Athene!”

“All hail our great rulers,” said Mark and Julie in deep solemn voices.

“Head girl and boy today, Oxford scholars tomorrow!”


	76. Chapter 76

Julie was sat on Charlie’s bed carefully painting her fingernails a shade of lipstick red. She had already painted her toenails. Even though Julie didn’t share a room with them anymore, she spent more time in their room than her own.  
Charlie was drawing up a schedule for the tennis tournament tomorrow, and Athene was trying to read a book but hadn’t gotten very far as she was so distracted thinking about the next day.  
“Is the coast clear?” asked Harry poking his head around the door.  
“You know Mitch never checks the sixth form dorms,” smirked Charlie as she finished off her time table.  
Harry, Anthony and Mark came traipsing into the dorm, and Mark was carrying a bottle of something.  
“What the hell is that?” asked Athene raising her eyebrows at him.  
“Gin,” shrugged Mark.  
“You’re not even trying to hide it?” laughed Charlie.  
“I’m sorry, but if we’ve got to stay up all night on a Friday night helping you two swat for those interviews tomorrow, we’re going to need something to liven things up a bit.”  
“Alright Marky,” sighed Anthony, “but I’m not touching a drop, I need a clear head tomorrow.”  
“Same here,” nodded Athene.  
Mark got out four glasses and poured gin for everyone apart from Athene and Anthony.  
“Right then,” muttered Harry having taken a quick swig of gin, “interview questions.”  
“what is your name?”  
“Anthony Charles Pennington,” laughed Anthony.  
“What is your favourite colour?” asked Julie.  
“Pink,” said Athene.  
“Who is your favourite person in this room?” asked Mark.  
“We need serious questions,” said Anthony shaking his head.  
“Right,” nodded Charlie.  
“Why Oxford and not Cambridge?”  
“Well,” said Anthony, “Oxford is better for the Humanities like Classics. Brasenose in particular has a good history of teaching Classics, I just feel like it’s the right college for me.”  
“Why do you want to study Classics?” asked Mark, “most people would say it’s a dead language.”  
“The Romans and the ancient Greeks may have been gone a long time,” said Athene, “but there’s still a lot of lessons we can learn from them.”  
They stayed up until early in the morning, when Mr Pennington came to pick them up.   
Anthony and Athene were in their best uniforms, with their shoes and badges brightly polished. Julie had pinned Athene’s plaits up, as they made her look older, and Anthony had even more brylcream on than normal.  
“Good luck Tons,” said Mark giving him a hug.  
“See you tonight,” called Charlie as they waved them off.  
As they drove to Oxford, Mr Pennington asked them questions on everything from current affairs to which was their favourite Greek tragedy and why.  
When they got to Oxford, they followed the signposts for the Brasenose interviews. As they walked past a tree, they passed George, Sarah and Kate from the Tolkien appreciation society who were with two other boys.  
“Hey Anthony, Athene,” called George.  
“You two here for your interviews?” asked Kate.  
“Ready as we’ll ever be,” muttered Anthony.  
“You’ll be fine,” chuckled Sarah.  
“Good luck!” they called.  
They followed the signs into the building where the interviews were being held, there were several dozen nervous students waiting with their parents.  
“Anthony Pennington!” they called.  
“Good luck Anthony,” said Athene giving him a quick kiss before he left.  
Anthony went through into a room where there were three professors, who all looked past forty. There was one woman and two men.  
“Anthony Pennington, from St Christophers school, Aldershot?” asked one of the professors as he sat down.  
“Yes sir,” stammered Anthony.  
“Did you have a long drive?” asked the woman.  
“It could have been longer,” he shrugged, “only a few hours.”  
“Why Classics?” asked one of the men, “not many people are interested in it anymore.”  
“Most people drop Latin when they get the first chance.”  
Anthony chuckled slightly.  
“Well I think it’s all because of my Latin teacher Mr Mitchell, he inspired Athene and I on our first day of school. Had us rushing off to the library to find books on Greek Mythology before we even started our first lesson.”  
“Would that be Athene Richards?” asked the woman checking her list.  
“Yes,” nodded Anthony, “my Dad brought Athene as well.”  
“Well your academic record seems to be very good,” said one of the men checking his notes.  
“Hmm,” nodded another professor, “you got A’s in all your GCE O’s, and your teachers seem to think you’ll do just as well on your A Levels.”  
“It also says here that you were offered a place at Harrow a few years back but you turned it down,” said one of the professors frowning slightly confused.  
“Why did you turn it down?” asked the woman.  
“Well, I was only fourteen. I didn’t want to leave my friends behind; I was doing very well at my studies at St. Christophers. Studying isn’t everything, if I’d gone to Harrow, I wouldn’t have been able to have as much time for my extracurricular activities.”  
“You certainly are busy,” nodded the woman, “orchestra, prefect duties, head boy. You and Athene have even started a book club last year.”  
“Do you think your academic performance may have suffered from this decision though?”  
“I don’t think so no,” said Anthony.  
“I always do well on my exams, and Athene and I do a lot of extra reading, always have done.”  
“Well I think that’s everything we need to cover, this is the last day of interviews, you should hear from us within the next week,” said one of the men as they finished the notes, “if you could send Athene in please.”  
“Thank you,” nodded Anthony getting up.  
“You’re up,” he told Athene giving her a quick hug.  
“How’d it go?”  
“Alright I think,” muttered Anthony, “I might have blown it though.”  
“You’ll have been great Tony,” beamed Athene before rushing off to her own interview.  
After the interviews, they headed back to school and tried not to think about Oxford.   
A week later though, Athene and Anthony were trying to do a History essay in the girl’s study, when one of the prefects came in.  
“These came in the post,” he told them, “I think they might be important.”  
They handed them a letter each before leaving.  
Anthony pulled open the envelope and found a short letter.  
“Dear Mr Pennington,  
Congratulations on passing the interview for Brasenose College Oxford.   
The university entrance exams will be on Friday the 11th and Saturday the 12th of December.  
Good luck, G. Taylor, Dean of Admissions, Brasenose College, Oxford.”  
“Did you pass too?” asked Athene.  
“Yes,” sighed Anthony, “but the exams are in three weeks!”


	77. Chapter 77

In the second weekend of December, Athene and Anthony went up to Oxford to take their entrance exams. If they passed those, they might get offered a place, but they’d still have to get the right A Level results.  
They were trying not to worry about the exams too much, they were done and whether they had passed or not there was nothing they could do about it.   
Mark and Julie threw themselves into preparing the Christmas entertainment, with help from Johnnie. Johnnie had his own house, but you’d never know it from how little time he actually spent in his house, he was usually hanging out with Mark and Julie.  
As it was their last ever Christmas entertainment, Mark and Julie wanted to make it as good as possible, so were trying to cram in as much as they could.   
This was when Johnnie came up with the idea, of a regular school day, but a spell had been put on the students, that they kept on bursting into song spontaneously. It was a perfect idea, as they could fit in all their favourite songs from their favourite musicals and artists.  
The end of term finally came, and Anthony was on a razor-sharp edge. He had taken his entrance exams a week ago, and Oxford said they’d be back to them by now.   
He was riffling through the post one last time to try and check for his and Athene’s letters from the admissions board.  
“Tony!” sighed Mark exasperated shaking his head.  
“There is no letter, now come on lets get a move on, Nick’s waiting.”  
Mark practically dragged his brother out to the car, Athene had already gone home and Nick and Julie were waiting in the car.  
“Still no news?” asked Nick as Anthony got in the front of the range rover next to him.  
“No news,” muttered Anthony.  
“Maybe no news is good news?” asked Julie.  
“I doubt it,” grumbled Anthony.  
On the way home, Julie and Mark were talking enthusiastically about their plans for the Christmas holidays.  
As they pulled up towards the house, they passed the Fforbes Hamiltons, and Roger was sitting on the gate waiting for her.  
He was swinging back and forth on the gate in a pair of muddy overalls and a pair of even muddier wellies.  
“Julie!” he yelled leaping down from the gate and rushing towards the car to get the door for her.  
He lifted her out of the car gracefully as Nick got Julie’s bags out the boot. Julie got her pristine uniform completely covered in mud, but Julie had a grin a mile wide.  
“I’ve missed you,” he beamed holding her face in his strong hands.  
“Did you get my letters?” she asked.  
“Read and treasured everyone,” nodded Roger patting his overall pocket where he kept the letters from Julie.  
“Why didn’t you write then?” laughed Julie.  
“I didn’t know what to write,” blushed Roger, “I’m not up to anything exciting here.”  
“I would have been happy to read anything as long as it was from you,” laughed Julie as Roger took her suitcases and they headed towards the house together.  
“Have you two broken up then?” asked Anthony looking back at Mark.  
“What?” asked Mark confused and somewhat flustered.  
“Oh yeah, we broke up over the Summer.”  
Anthony had noticed that Julie and Mark weren’t kissing anymore, but other than that nothing else had changed. The breakup can’t have been that bad, because Mark and Julie still did everything together like they always used to.  
He soon forgot about this, as he saw Niki and Michael rush out of the open door to the house, followed by a frantic Simon who managed to catch Michael.  
“You two are getting too fast for old Daddy,” chuckled Simon putting Michael on his hip.  
“Uncle Tony!” screamed Niki clinging onto Anthony’s legs.  
“Hey there little princess,” said Anthony crouching down to her height.  
“My eyes must be deceiving me,” said Anthony shaking his head exaggeratedly.  
“The little Niki I left behind was only a little thing, but you’re such a big girl. You’re almost as tall as me!”  
“No I’m not!” laughed Niki.  
“Oh yes you are,” said Anthony kneeling down.  
“You’re being silly,” laughed Niki.  
“Have you written to Father Christmas?”  
Niki nodded.  
“I’ve invited him to my birthday party!”  
“You have?”  
“Mummy helped you write the invitation didn’t she sweetheart?” asked Simon as they all headed inside.  
“Yes, we even got a reply.”  
“You didn’t,” exclaimed Mark.  
“Yes, I’ve been a good girl, so Santa is coming to my party. But he can’t come until after lunch.”  
“I wonder why?” asked Anthony.  
“Maybe because he has to carve the turkey at Christmas lunch first,” smirked Mark quietly enough so Niki didn’t hear him.  
They left the bags in the hallway, and Mark ran off to drive into town to do his Christmas shopping.  
Anthony went through to the sitting room with Niki. Isabelle seemed to be struggling with knitting which seemed to be a jumbled mess, and Celia was trying Tim on a bottle and Tim didn’t seem too impressed.  
“You learning to knit Niki?” chuckled Anthony.  
“I’m not very good at it,” sighed Niki giving it up as a bad job.  
“I could give you a hand.”  
“You can knit!” asked Isabelle and Celia.  
“Maybe,” he shrugged.  
“Boarding school is very boring, so Athene started teaching me how to knit a few months back. It calms me down when im stressing about work too much.”  
“Why are you bothering anyway?” asked Anthony, “I never thought you were much of a knitter.”  
Then Anthony saw the pattern for baby boots that Isabelle was trying to follow.  
“Oh Cels,” said Anthony exasperatedly, “you’re not pregnant again!”  
“No,” laughed Celia, “I’ve got my hands full for now thanks!”  
“Glad to hear it,” chuckled Simon as he came in playing with Michael.  
“You’ll find out soon enough,” muttered Izzy, “I’m pregnant.”  
“What?” stammered Anthony, “when are you due?”  
“About May,” said Izzy.  
“The doctors even think it might be twins!” said Nick proudly.  
“I would not wish that on my worst enemy,” said Celia patting Izzy on the shoulder.  
At that moment the telephone rang from Mr Pennington’s office next door.  
Nick ran to answer it.  
“The Pennington Residence?”  
“Tony!” Nick called from the other room, “it’s for you.”  
A phone call for him?  
The only person who might call him was Athene, and they saw each other that morning.  
“It’s really important Tony,” said Nick grinning like mad.  
Tony was even more confused as he took the phone from his brother.  
“Hello, this is Anthony Pennington.”  
“Ah, hello Anthony. This is Dr Fairbrother, we met on the day of your interview for Brasenose college.”  
“Oh hello sir,” stammered Anthony flusteredly.  
“I’m sorry we didn’t get in touch with Athene and you earlier, but it took longer than we thought it would to mark the papers.”  
“Um that’s alright,” said Anthony loaghing nervously.  
“Well, now the papers have been marked, we’re trying to get in touch with the most urgent cases first.”  
“Urgent!” stammered Anthony, “if there something wrong!”  
“No of course not,” chuckled Dr Fairbrother.  
“You did very well at the interview, even though we did throw some quite difficult questions at you. And as for your exam results, they were remarkable.”  
“Thank you sir,” nodded Anthony blushing slightly.  
“Well, we are ringing our most urgent students first, but there will of course be confirmation in the post.”  
“Have I passed?” asked Anthony dreading the answer.  
“Passed!” exclaimed Dr Fairbrother, “of course you’ve passed! Athene and you were in top five percent of all the students taking the entrance exams.”  
“Five percent,” mouthed Anthony hardly believing it.  
“I am ringing to offer you an unconditional place at Brasenose College for next academic year.”  
“Unconditional?” asked Anthony.  
“It means, all you have to do is sit the exams in June. However, you do, we’ll take you, just show up for the exams.”  
Anthony went silent for a moment, his mind had gone into shock.  
“Anthony?” asked Dr. Fairbrother, “are you there?”  
“If you don’t want the place we can offer it to someone else.”  
“No sir,” stammered Anthony, “I’m here. I’d be honoured to accept!”  
“Jolly good,” chuckled Dr Fairbrother.  
“Before you go,” said Anthony frantically, “can I ask about Athene?”  
“Miss Richards is getting the same offer as you, unconditional.”  
“Thank you sir,” said Anthony weakly.  
He put the phone back and walked back through to the sitting room.  
“What’s up Tony?” asked Simon.  
But Anthony had fainted and fell onto the floor out of complete shock.


	78. Chapter 78

“Wake up Uncle Marky!” screamed Niki jumping on Mark’s bed.  
Michael nudged Tony slightly gently.  
“Where’s the fire?” mumbled Mark.  
“No fire!” said Niki shaking her head.  
“Father Christmas!”  
“Father Christmas?” asked Anthony impressed.  
Michael nodded his head.  
“Well come on then,” said Mark as they picked up one of the children each and rushed down to the sitting room where there was a roaring fire glowing and there were eleven stockings hanging over the fireplace.  
Half the adults were already there and awake.  
Major Llewelyn took Michael from Anthony and sit him down on his lap.  
“What do you want from Father Christmas Mickey?”  
“Teddy bear,” beamed Michael.  
“A teddy bear, good choice. Have you been a good boy?”  
“Yes,” nodded Michael.  
“Is Santa coming?” asked Niki as Simon came in with Timothy.  
“He’s already been, he came when you were asleep, but if you’re extra good, he might come this afternoon.”  
Everyone opened their presents, Michael had gotten his teddy that he wanted, in fact between Niki and Michael, they got enough Teddys to start their own menagerie.  
“I wonder why there are so many teddy bears,” muttered Mark, “maybe it’s got something to do with somebodies birthday?”  
“Baby Jesus’!” yelled Michael and Niki.  
“Yes little ones,” laughed Mr Pennington, kissing Niki on top of the head, “baby Jesus’.”  
Anthony and Athene hadn’t gotten very many presents each, but Athene had gotten the navy-blue cashmere jumper she’d asked for, and Anthony had been given a new camera. He had been given a new cinecamera for his birthday which could record for much longer than thirty seconds and in colour.   
But he had now been given a polaroid camera.  
“It’s much clunkier than the old one,” said Mark looking at the huge camera which was a lot less sleek looking than Anthony’s new cinecamera.  
“It can develop photos almost instantly,” Anthony explained as he looked at the camera, “you don’t have to develop it in a darkened room.”  
Anthony had gotten quite good at developing photos, he and Athene used Athene’s room for developing and put a sign on her room saying ‘do not open’ when they were developing so no one let any light in to the room.  
“Oh,” said Mark only semi impressed as he tried on his new jacket, “cool.”  
Mark had gotten lots for Christmas, but the big thing had been a brand-new set of leather luggage. There were three matching warm brown leather suitcases, and one smaller bag for hand luggage.   
Mr Schuller, Mark’s new agent in Hollywood had got him his first film contract, and Mark started in early August. Mark could hardly fly all the way to America with his school trunk, so he had gotten all new suitcases.  
“Santa doesn’t seem to have left much for our two scholars does he?” asked Simon.  
“Maybe he left the presents outside?” suggested Nick.  
Athene and Anthony looked at each other confused.  
“Come on everyone,” said Simon taking Niki and Michael’s hands and rushing out to the driveway followed by the rest of the family.  
There didn’t seem to be anything different outside, there were the five cars there. The four Pennington cars and Major Llewelyn’s.   
“I can’t see anything different,” said Athene.  
“Hurry up will you,” grumbled Mark holding his dressing gown closer, “I’m ducking freezing.”  
Celia gave Mark a meaningful expression.  
“You’re lucky I didn’t use f,” said Mark.  
“Be careful,” muttered Celia, “Niki’s learning to read.”  
“Don’t notice anything different about your car Tons?” asked Nick.  
Anthony walked over to his car and noticed there was something slightly different attached to the boot.  
“There’s a bike rack,” shrugged Anthony.  
“Father Christmas has brought a bike rack,” beamed Mr Pennington.  
“But you can’t have a bike rack,” said Simon pulling open the garage, “without bikes.”  
At the front of the garage, there were two brand new shiny bikes with ribbons attached. One was a dark green, and there was a slightly smaller bike which was a pale blue.  
“We can’t send you two off to Oxford without bikes, now can we?” asked Mr Pennington.   
Anthony was flabbergasted, he had had no idea any of this was happening.  
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” exclaimed Athene hugging Mr Pennington and her uncle Davy.   
“Merry Christmas our little geniuses,” chortled Simon.  
Anthony and Athene took their bikes for a test drive up and down the driveway everyone clapping and cheering enthusiastically.  
Then everyone started on the Christmas dinner and a certain someone’s birthday tea.  
Whilst the turkey was in the oven, Athene Anthony and Major Llewelyn were making a miniature birthday tea. Tiny little sandwiches, miniscule fairy cakes, and the smallest of cookies. Niki was turning three today, and Father Christmas was coming to her Teddy bear’s picnic.  
The Bells and Fforbes Hamilton’s came just in time for lunch, with a hardly recognisable Roger.  
Roger had had a good scrub, and instead of his usual farm overalls was wearing a festive jumper in red and green stripes which his Mum had given him.  
There was also a noticeable difference in Julie, she was always happy but today she seemed to be ecstatic and her arm linked with Roger’s.   
As usual as soon as lunch was over, Christmas day was over, and they moved onto December the 25th part two, Niki’s birthday.  
After lunch, Mr Pennington slipped away, and everyone went through to the sitting room. As Mark was setting up the record player though, there was a loud knock on the front door.  
“Who could that be?” asked Celia.  
“Santa!” yelled Niki and Michael as they both rushed to the door.  
Niki answered the door, and there, surprise surprise was Father Christmas as large as life.  
“Well, hello there Nicole!” said Father Christmas, “and little Michael too.”  
“Merry Christmas everyone, and a very happy birthday to you Niki.”  
“Thank you, Santa,” beamed Niki.  
“Are you going to invite Father Christmas in dear,” laughed Mrs Bell.  
Father Christmas came back into the sitting room, where Mark had just finished setting up for musical statues.  
“You lot ready to rock!” yelled Mark.  
Simon and Mr Bell gave him meaningful looks.  
“I mean are you lot ready to have a children’s birthday party?”  
Mark put Rocking Around the Christmas Tree on his record player, and everyone danced around and then had to freeze when the music stopped.  
Then they got out all the teddy bear and lined them up in a circle, it was time to play musical chairs, but with teddys. Everyone had to walk around the room, and when the music stopped, they had to run for the nearest teddy. One teddy would get removed at a time, and whoever didn’t have a teddy was out. The last person still in the game was the winner.  
“Alright we’ve run off enough energy now,” said Mr Bell.  
“I don’t know about Father Christmas,” chuckled Major Llewelyn half collapsing into a chair “but I’m shattered.”  
“If everyone can sit down in the circle nicely next to a teddy,” said Julie, “we can play pass the parcel.”  
Everyone sat down next to a teddy bear, ever Roger who hadn’t expected to be invited for a children’s birthday as well as Christmas but was thoroughly enjoying himself.  
They slowly passed around the parcel, Mark had changed the record to Teddy Bears Picnic now which was playing for the rest of the afternoon.  
Eventually, they got to the last layer, and the record stopped on Athene. She pulled off the paper, and instead of finding a brightly wrapped chocolate, she found a tiny little teddy bear. It was no more than a few inches tall and a warm caramel with a red ribbon tied around his neck.  
“He’s adorable,” laughed Athene.  
“He is pretty cute!” agreed Anthony.  
Then Niki opened all her presents. One of her favourite presents, was from Athene. Athene had made a dress for Niki like the one that Sleeping Beauty had worn at the end of the film, the pink version rather than the blue as it was Niki’s favourite colour. she had made it quite big so Niki could grow into it, she had also made doll versions of the Snow White and Cinderella dresses for the dolls Athene and Alice, who Niki took everywhere with her.  
After presents, they played Hide and Seek, and Anthony and Athene were it. They spent nearly an hour searching for everyone around the house. Eventually the only people they had left to find where Julie and Roger.  
“I cant think where they could be,” sighed Anthony.  
“Tony, we didn’t leave the Do Not Open sign on my door did we?”  
“I don’t think so,” said Anthony racing up the stairs the attic to Athene’s room.  
They opened the door, and he could hear muffled giggles.  
Anthony sprang onto Athene’s bed and checked by the window. He found Julie, and Roger in each other’s arms laughing hysterically. They had clearly been making out in Athene’s room and had rolled out of sight when Anthony had burst through the door.  
“Have you used Hide and Seek as an excuse to make out?” laughed Athene.  
“Got a problem with that?” asked Roger getting up.  
“Nope,” shrugged Anthony, “wish I’d thought of that myself.”


	79. Chapter 79

“Right you lot,” said Charlie looking around at them sternly.

Everyone was gathered in an unused classroom, there was now slightly under fifty girls at St Christopher’s, and this was Charlie’s last chance.

“You listen and you listen well, this is our last chance. My last chance. We need to prove once and for all that we’re better than those stupid boys.”

“Are we ready!”

“Yes,” called the girls somewhat enthusiastically.

“Are we ready!” yelled Charlie.

“Yes!” the girls hollered.

“Let’s go the scare the living daylights into those boys then,” beamed Athene.

Athene stood on either side of the door to leave the classroom, and all the girls gave them high fives as they left.

Julie headed off to the tennis tournament, and Athene was in the school quiz. The boys won the school quiz this year, they didn’t even need a tie breaker, the boys won 340 to 320.

But it wasn’t over, they still had the first challenge cup debate. They had picked the girl with the biggest mouth in the school. 

They would have picked Julie, but she was busy in the tennis finals, so it was Diana Charlie’s friend from the cadets that got chosen.

“Your topic is,” said Mr Mitchell, “women are the weaker sex. Discuss.”

One of the boys from the Lower Sixth, started by saying that women were completely dependent on men, and were hopeless without them. Then it was Diana’s turn.

“Thank you for those remarks John,” said Diana respectfully.

“Twenty years ago, in 1939, our great country went to war, and all the young men joined the army to fight our oppressors.

If you believe Johnathon’s argument to be true, and that women are completely dependent on men and can’t survive without them, Britain would have fallen to pieces. There were no men in ammunitions factories to produce vital supplies for the army. Our country would have starved because all the young farmers had taken the kings shilling.

But it didn’t!

Women took over and did their job and coped remarkably well. They worked in the factories and on the farms, and did the jobs just as well men could have, if not better.

But when the men came back from war, and needed their jobs back, the women didn’t complain. They went back to bringing up their families and being perfect little housewives. But they had changed, they knew what they were capable of. 

Some women wanted to have a job and look after their families, they had enjoyed the freedom they had had in the war. And many of them did find jobs, in shops or teaching.

But back to your question Mr Mitchell, are women the weaker sex.

Those women who filled in whilst their husbands and fathers and brothers were away, they did a full time job and then came home and did the housework and look after the children. 

Those were our mothers!

Would you say that are mothers are the weaker sex?

Just imagine, that today your father had to go to work in the bank or at the doctor’s surgery. A full day and then looking after the house and putting the children to bed. They wouldn’t be able to manage. They’re not strong enough. 

Therefore, women are clearly not the weaker sex.

“Thank you, Diana,” nodded Mr Mitchell.

“I think that makes the ladies the clear winners!”

The girls won the tennis, which meant they were in the lead two events to one.

Then came the St Christopher’s triathlon, which was one by Charlie and Diana again the same as last year. 

That only left the rugby match.

The fifteen strong boys lined up opposite the girls team. The girls were smaller, but they knew that. They were smaller but also smaller. They could dodge and weave their way out of the boys.

The boys did win the rugby but not by much, 32 to 27.

That evening Charlie was proudly polishing the Challenge Cup as Anthony and Athene tested each other on Latin declensions.

Anthony and Athene had been studying like crazy since December for their A Levels.

“I don’t see why you two are bothering,” muttered Julie.

“The exams start in three months Julie,” said Anthony simply.

“And you two have unconditional places,” Mark reminded them.

“Yes,” said Athene, “but everyone going to Oxford is going to have to work hard for these A Levels, so its only fair that we do to.”

“Try your hardest and you’ll never be disappointed,” said Anthony, flicking through a History textbook.

“Mark,” said Harry concernedly, “if those two shrivel up from lack of sunlight by the end of the Easter Hols, invite us to the funeral.”

“You can give the eulogy,” smirked Mark.


	80. Chapter 80

Anthony and Athene were up in the attic studying for their exams. Anthony was testing Athene on the causes of the Civil War, and later they were going to be revising the architecture of Ancient Greek temples.

It was chucking it down with rain, and Simon and Mr Pennington were all at work in London, and Nick and Izzy had gone to pick up Izzy’s parents from the airport. 

Izzy was now seven months pregnant and getting bigger by the day, so her mother was coming to help with the babies when they arrived. Monsieur Visage was only going to be staying a few weeks before he had to go back to Paris to get started on producing his next play.

It was almost definite that they were having twins now, the doctor had heard two heartbeats and everything. Twins were fairly common in the family, there was already Mark and Anthony, and Mrs Pennington had had a twin brother. But everybody was still very excited. 

Mark was at Julie’s, they were supposed to be practising for their music A-Level, but they were actually listening to Mozart records whilst flicking through film magazines.

Niki and Michael were fed up with the rain, they wanted to go out and play even if it was raining. But Celia had told them that they couldn’t go and play in the garden because of the rain.

This is why, Niki and Michael were coming up to Athene’s room.

“Let’s find Tony and Athy!” called Michael rushing up the stairs to the attic followed by Niki.

“There’s a sign!” said Niki pointing at the sign on Athene’s door.

“What’s it say?” asked Michael.

“I don’t know,” said Niki squinting at the sign.

Mummy had been teaching her how to read, but she wasn’t particularly good yet.

“Do,” said Niki slowly trying to sound out the words, “not enter.”

But Michael had already ignored the sign and gone in.

“Tony! Athy!”

“Whaty?” asked Anthony looking up from his History notes.

“We’re bored!”

“You’re bored?” exclaimed Athene.  
“There’s nothing to do,” sulked Niki.

“We wanted to go on an adventure,” said Niki.

“In the garden,” agreed Michael.

“But’s its raining,” said Niki shaking her head.

“So, you can’t play outside because it’s raining,” sighed Anthony putting his notes away, “and so you’re bored.”

“Did you know,” said Anthony, “you can have just as many adventures inside as outside?”

Niki and Michael looked unimpressed.

“There’s all sorts you can do,” he explained, “you can play hide and seek, or go exploring. You might even find a dragon.”

“Can’t you play with us?” begged Michael.

“You’re fun to play with,” agreed Niki.

“Can’t you play with Mummy?”

“Mummy’s busy,” grumbled Michael.

“With baby Timmy,” nodded Niki.

“Surely we can take one day off,” said Athene looking at Anthony.

“Right,” said Anthony as he put his books away, “lets hunt for a dragon!”

Niki and Michaels faces lit up as Anthony put his studying away for once.

“Right then,” said Anthony.

“Dragons are very fearsome creatures, that can breathe fire and hoard lots of treasure. But they don’t like the rain very much. When it rains they hide inside their caves and they stop flying around. But sometimes they can’t fly back to their caves in time, so they hide somewhere else, in humans houses where it’s nice and warm.”

“There’s a dragon in our house!” screamed Niki.

“Well there might be,” said Athene, “we’ll have to go and look won’t we.”

“But how do we fight a dragon?” asked Michael.

“Well you need lots of things,” said Athene.

“You need a wizard,” said Anthony, “with a magic wand.”

“Where’s the wand?”

“This should do,” said Athene passing Anthony a cricket bat.

“So, we’ve got a wizard and his magic wand,” muttered Anthony, “what else do we need.”

“An elven warrior,” beamed Athene doing up a quilt around her neck like a robe, and grabbing a fountain pen.

“Why do you have a pen?” asked Niki confused.

“The pen is mightier than the sword!” beamed Athene.

“We also need, a brave knight,” said Anthony, “and a beautiful princess.”

“Why do we need a princess?” asked Niki.

“So that you can try and dazzle the dragon with your beauty!” laughed Athene.

Athene helped Niki into one of her old party dresses which trailed behind Niki when she walked. Michael was being a brave knight, so was using Athene’s tennis racket as a sword and Anthony bright up a saucepan from the kitchen for Michael to use as a helmet.

“Right,” said Anthony straightening Michael’s helmet, “now our questing party is ready, where do we start the search?”

“The attic!” said Michael.

“It might have wanted to help Uncle Marky with his tap,” laughed Niki.

The questing party left Athene’s bedroom and set out on their journey across the hallway.

“You got your flaming torch?” asked Anthony.

“Yes, oh great wizard,” said Athene turning on her torch.

“Welcome to the Cave of Wonders,” said Anthony looking around the room crowded with boxes of old toys and books and trunks of old clothes.

“Maybe the dragons decided to claim it as his new horde,” suggested Athene.

“How big is the dragon?” asked Niki as they looked through the boxes.

“I don’t know,” said Athene, “it could be quite small, baby dragons aren’t bigger than a teddy bear.”

“How big are adult dragons?” asked Michael.

“Some can be as big as houses,” said Anthony, “but those are huge and usually camp out in the mountains.”

“But some are only the size of bathtubs,” said Athene.

“How big do you think our dragon is?” asked Niki.

“Not much bigger than a bathtub I wouldn’t have thought,” said Anthony, “if it was any bigger, we would have seen it.”

“The biggest dragon is the size of a great big London bus, and lives on a cave right at the top of Mount Everest.”

“That’s a big dragon,” nodded Michael.

“That’s a scary dragon,” said Niki.

“Don’t worry princess Niki,” chuckled Anthony, “we’ll sort it out.”

“Tell you what,” said Athene, as they finished searching the attic.

“This elven warrior is a bit tired of adventuring, why don’t you two help the wizard find the dragon.”

“But we can’t fight the dragon without you!” said Niki.

“Yes, you can,” said Athene passing Niki her pen.

“Be careful with that, pens can be very dangerous.”

“Where do you think we might find a dragon?”

“Fire!” exclaimed Michael.

“You’re right! Where there’s smoke there must be a dragon.”

“Let’s go check the sitting room,” said Anthony rushing down the stairs with Niki and Michael, whilst Athene went to go and find a suitable ‘dragon’ for them to find.

They checked by the fire, and Niki practically climbed up the fireplace looking for the dragon. It was a good thing the fire hadn’t been lit, otherwise Niki might have gotten burnt. They even checked by the oven in the kitchen.

“Where else could a dragon be?” muttered Anthony.

“Maybe somewhere quiet,” suggested Niki.

“I think we should go check the wizards lair,” said Anthony going back upstairs with the princess and the brave knight.

They checked ‘the Wizards Lair’ which was really the linen cupboard, they didn’t find a dragon, but Michael did find a piece of paper.

“What’s that?” asked Anthony.

“I don’t know,” said Michael giving Anthony the paper.

“It’s a clue!” said Anthony.

“I am not a very big dragon, and I needed to somewhere to rest. When you need to rest, I find mulling it over the best.”

“Mulling it over?” asked Niki confused.

“What’s that?” said Michael.

“Where do you mull things over?” thought Anthony.

“The bath!” exclaimed Michael before they all ran next door to the bathroom.

“I’ve found a dragon!” yelled Niki as she got to the bathroom first.

“What?” asked Anthony not believing it.

But there was indeed a dragon in the bathroom. 

There was one of Athene’s quilts hanging in front of the bath, and it had a red velvet dragon sewn onto the middle.

“Wow!” breathed Michael.

“Shall we see if the dragon’s left anything behind?” asked Anthony taking the quilt down and folding it away.

“It has!” exclaimed Michael.

“There’s a dragon’s egg,” said Niki her eyes wide in amazement.

Athene had taken a rugby ball and wrapped it in tinfoil, so that it really did look like a shiny silvery dragon’s egg.

“I think the Mummy dragon has moved on,” said Anthony, “but he had left this as a present.”

“Do you think it will hatch?” asked Michael.

“No, I don’t think so,” said Anthony, “the Mummy’s gone, but you can keep the egg.”

Niki and Michael rushed back up to Athene’s room, where she was pretending to be asleep.

“Athy!” screamed Niki pouncing on her.

“Yes Cariad?” she asked stretching obviously.

“We found a dragons egg,” said Niki.

“Well,” said Anthony, “I think that was good afternoons work.”

“You don’t find a dragons egg everyday,” laughed Athene.


	81. Chapter 81

Athene was lying on top of her bed studying as always. She had her French exam tomorrow morning. She had already taken her History, Classical Civilisations and English Literature A Levels, she only had her French and Latin left now.

She was trying to practise her translation for a bit, and had decided to skip tea as she wanted to study.

“Hey Athens!” said Charlie.

“What do you want Charlie?” she mumbled flicking through a dictionary.

“Come on Athy,” begged Julie, “just come and get some tea.”

“No thanks,” she shrugged.

“Oh, come on, there’s jam tarts.”

“It’s your birthday,” sighed Charlie, “just put the books away for five minutes.”

Athene still looked unconvinced, she had been trying to forget about her birthday this year, her and Anthony were going to celebrate it on Saturday once they’d taken all their exams.

“Oh alright,” sighed Athene putting down her dictionary, “but just for half an hour.”  
Charlie and Julie took a hand each and half pulled Athene down to the dining room where the rest of the house was already waiting for tea.

“Where’s these jam tarts then?” asked Athene flopping down at the table.

“Oh, there are no jam tarts,” shrugged Charlie, “but there is cake.”

At this point, Lizzie and Lucy with help from some of the others carried in a huge cake with light pink icing and sugar flowers.

“For she’s a jolly good fellow! For she’s a jolly good fellow! For she’s a jolly good fellow! That nobody can deny!”

Athene laughed as she blew out the eighteen candles. Anthony was beaming at her as he gave her a kiss.

“Did you plan all this?” asked Athene as he helped her cut the cake.

“You bet I did,” said Anthony.

“But I thought we were postponing my birthday,” asked Athene.

“I’d never postpone your birthday,” said Anthony putting his arm around her, “you’re my girlfriend, you mean too much for me.”

“But what about our exams?”

“You guys know it all back to front,” shrugged Harry as they ate their cake.

“Besides, Anthony’s going to help you with your French after presents,” Julie explained.

“Hey maybe he’ll help you with you Oral,” said Mark winking suggestively.

“Don’t be so horrible,” laughed Athene.

After cake, they all headed back up to the girl’s dorm to unwrap Athene’s presents.

Her Uncle Davy had given her a new leather-bound diary and had promised that they were going to go on holiday in Wales for a whole month over the Summer holidays.

She had also been given a box of presents from the Pennington’s. The Visages had given her some French chocolates, and she had gotten drawings from Niki and Michael. 

Even Celia had sent her a woman’s handbook, which apparently had been what had made her and Simon’s marriage so successful.

Athene doubted that this book was the reason why Simon and Celia’s marriage was so successful, but she wasn’t going to argue with her.

Izzy had even sent Athene some material, so that she could have some new clothes when she started at Oxford in a few months.

Anthony had gotten Athene her usual photograph album, labelled St. Christopher’s Upper Sixth.

He’d also given her something else as well. At the bottom of the pile of presents was a small box wrapped with a red ribbon.

Athene carefully unwrapped the box and found a silver heart shaped locket with Roses engraved on the front.

“Oh Anthony, it’s beautiful,” she exclaimed.

“You haven’t opened it yet,” laughed Anthony.

She opened the locket, and found a photograph of her parents, one on each half of the locket.

“I know how much your parents mean to you Athy,” said Anthony as he did up the necklace around her neck.

“And I know how well you’ve fit into our family, but you should never forget your family.”

“I love you Anthony,” said Athene giving him a hug.

Athene and Anthony were soon making out on Athene’s bed.

“I think we’re going to take this as our cue to leave,” said Mark getting up to leave with Harry, Charlie and Julie.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t,” said Charlie.

“There’s not a lot of things you wouldn’t do Charlie,” chuckled Harry.

“So now we’ve practised that kind of oral,” said Anthony, “do we want to practise the French?”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Athene getting her grammar textbook out and Anthony flicked it open to the right chapter.

He was just testing her on the different types of past tense, when Harry knocked on their door.

“You two decent?” he called.

“When aren’t we?” called Anthony.

“Fair enough,” muttered Harry opening the door.

“There’s a phone call for you both downstairs, we cant find Mark.”

“He’s probably off somewhere with Johnnie and Julie,” shrugged Anthony as they went to go and take the phone call.

“There’s only bad thing about having our own rooms,” groaned Athene.

“They’re up five flights of stairs,” laughed Athene and Anthony.

They finally got down to the ground floor where the telephone was kept.

“Hello?” asked Anthony down the receiver.

“Hi Tony?” called Nick.

“It’s Nick.”

“Is everything all right?” asked Anthony.

“How’s Izzy?” asked Athene who was sharing the receiver with him.

“Everyone’s fine, we’re all fine,” said Nick.

“We’ve got news, Izzy has had her babies.”

“What?” asked Athene.

“She’s given birth?” said Anthony.

“This morning.”

“Yeah,” beamed Nick, “we’ve got a little girl and a little boy.”

“We’ve called them Charlotte and Brian.”

“You’re named them after Mum and Dad?” asked Anthony.

“They’ve got the same birthday as me?” laughed Athene.

“Yes,” said Nick, “and yes.”

“Tell Marky for me will you?”

“Yeah sure,” said Anthony, “and congratulations Dad!”

“Thanks Tony,” chuckled Nick.

“Hey Mark!” said Athene as Mark came walking back into the building.

“Izzy’s given birth, a girl and boy, Charlotte and Brian.”

“hey I’m an Uncle!” exclaimed Mark.

“You were already an Uncle idiot,” said Anthony shaking his head.


	82. Chapter 82

Anthony was helping Athene wrap up her glass photograph frames in her quilt. They were just finishing off the last of her packing.

“It’s strange to think isn’t it,” said Anthony, “that we’re never going to come back here ever again.”

“Seven years is a flipping long time,” sighed Athene looking at the photograph of her Dad. 

When she had started at St Christopher’s seven years ago, her Dad had still been alive.

“You never know we might come back someday though,” shrugged Anthony.

“Oh no,” said Athene shaking her head, “you know my rule. We are not sending our kids to boarding school.”

“I didn’t mean for our kids,” said Anthony, “I meant for teaching.”

“Are you two bloody finished?” asked Mark coming into the dorm.

“Nearly,” muttered Anthony doing up Athene’s trunk.

“Come on you slow coaches,” said Harry passing them their swimming costumes, “one last swim.”

“It’s nine o’clock, it’s nearly curfew,” said Athene.

“Yeah, and as of your speech tomorrow afternoon you two won’t be Head Girl and Boy anymore,” said Julie.

“So come on,” said Charlie one last swim for old times sake.”

“Oh, alright then,” chuckled Athene taking her swimming costume and going to go and get changed.

Harry and Charlie had enough towels for everyone, and Mark and Julie had brought their torches.

They crept out of the building, and checked that no staff were watching, before Mark and Julie turned on their torches and they ran across the lawn before they could get caught.

But they were completely fine, there were no staff on duty making sure the students were in their dorms.

“They’re probably too busy having their own end of term party,” smirked Mark as he got in the swimming pool.

“Probably getting drunk,” agreed Charlie.

“They’ve got Speech Day in the morning,” said Athene astounded.

“How else do you think they’re going to cope with that?” laughed Harry.

After swimming for a few hours, they all headed inside to get warm, which is when Mark pulled out a bottle of champagne out of nowhere.

“Where the hell did you get that?” exclaimed Anthony.

“The landlord from the pub,” he shrugged.

“Oh come on Mr Perfect,” laughed Harry as he poured out champagne into mugs, “we’re all of age.”

“And we’re at school,” pointed out Athene.

“We’re meant to set an example,” agreed Anthony.

“We are setting an example,” said Julie.

“Of how not to get caught,” smirked Mark.

“I give up,” sighed Anthony taking his mug.

“I’m only having one drink though, got to keep my wits about me, got to give that ruddy speech tomorrow.”

“The last one mate,” said Harry.

“Thank God for that,” muttered Anthony.

The next morning, Mark and Harry both had killer headaches. They had not only polished over a mug of champagne each, but half a dozen bottles of beer.

“Hey Charlie,” said Harry giving her a feeble smile, “give me a nudge when my name gets called out will you?”

“I might,” she shrugged, “and I might not.”

Harry groaned as they went to go and take their seats.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, Students, Parents, Teachers, Staff and School Governors,” muttered Anthony under his breath as Athene straightened his tie.

“Is that everyone?” he asked.

“Tony,” said Athene giving him a kiss, “stop panicking, you’ll be fine.”

Anthony laughed nervously and nodded at her.

“One last time?” asked Anthony.

“Let’s do this,” nodded Athene.

They went through to the school hall and sat in the front row. Mr Grainger gave his opening speech, and then they had to give their speech before all the trophies were handed out.

“And now, your Head Girl and Boy, Athene Richards and Anthony Pennington.”

Athene and Anthony walked up to the stage together.

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” said Anthony into the microphone, “Students, Parents, Teachers, Staff and School Governors. Welcome, and thank you for coming.”

“I think it’s safe to say,” chuckled Athene, “that St. Christopher’s isn’t a normal school. This is a place where girls can play rugby and join the military cadets. The staff aren’t just our teachers, they’re our friends.”

“In this relaxed and stimulating atmosphere, students thrive and our encouraged to pursue our dreams. This can’t be more true for our own year. This year, out of our graduating students, one of them has a Hollywood film contract and will soon be taking the world by storm, and we have made a new record this year, eight of the students from our year will be going to Oxford or Cambridge Athene and I among them.”

“Not to mention,” said Athene, “that this year, we will be having our first female student not only to join the cadets, but to join the army. Charlie Makenzie, along with several other graduating students will be signing up for the army within the next few weeks.”  
“But of course, even though we have to leave,” said Anthony, “we’ll forget St Christopher’s.” 

“From Fred and Ginger tap dancing through the halls, to Charlie giving her patriotic speeches on School Challenge cup day,” continued Athene.

“To Mr Grainger reading Macbeth to us in a Scottish accent, and Mr Davies teaching us how to shout properly,” agreed Anthony.

“So, to conclude, if we have to relive these seven years we would,” said Athene.

“And to everyone, current students, and graduating students,” said Anthony.

“Good luck!” they called.

Athene and Anthony sat back down, as they started to give out the prizes. Anthony had to get up so many times, he felt like a Jack in a Box. 

He wasn’t able to sit down, as soon as he collected each trophy or cup, he’d have to pass it to his Dad on his way down the aisle, before running out of the hall and back in through the back door to join the back of the line for his next prize. Athene had a similar experience, and there was soon two boxes full to bursting with prizes.

The others all got prizes as well, Mark got the music award, and Charlie and Harry got the sports cups, Julie had even gotten the cup for deportment.

Then, it was time for the time for the Speech Day entertainment, and Mark and Julie gave their final swan song, dancing together one last time before going their separate ways.

Then everyone was loading their bags and trunks into the cars, and they were all saying their last goodbyes. Athene was going to see Mark, and Julie over the next month, and she was going to be seeing Anthony every day for the next three years. But Harry and Charlie were going away.

“You two be careful,” said Athene trying not to cry as she hugged Harry and Charlie goodbye. She knew she couldn’t stop them from signing up for the army, it was their dream but she was still worried about them.

“You two are going to write every day?” asked Anthony.

“Maybe not every day,” laughed Harry, “but we promise to write often.”

“We can send you postcards from all the exciting places,” beamed Charlie.

“And Mark,” said Harry, “if you run into Liz Taylor, or Marilyn Monroe.”

“Get them a signed photo I know,” chuckled Mark.

“Clothes on or off, that’s up to them,” shrugged Harry.

Charlie gave him a sharp jab in the ribs. 

“Be careful, I could go off you, you know.”

“Forgive me Charlie!” said Harry pleadingly grovelling and kneeling down on the driveway.

“Don’t be a prat,” laughed Charlie as Harry got back off the drive and giving him a quick kiss.

“Good luck at Oxford,” said Harry.

“Yeah, don’t forget us when you’re mincing around with academics in your huge library’s,” said Charlie.

“How could we ever forget you?” said Athene giving Charlie a hug.

Harry and Charlie headed home, and Julie went home with her parents.

“We should get a move on Tony,” said Mark.

“There’s a new niece and nephew waiting for you,” agreed Mr Pennington.

“Oh right,” muttered Anthony.

“I’ll see you in a few days alright?” said Anthony putting his hands-on Athene’s shoulders.

Athene leant of her tip toes to kiss Anthony.

“I’m going to see you in a few days,” she chuckled.

“You don’t have to make such a drama about it.”

Anthony smirked slightly as he gave her one last quick kiss and got in the car.

As the car drove away from St. Christopher’s, Anthony looked out the window. He’d gone to school to learn, and study, but he’d done more than that.

He’d made friends for life, but more than that, he had met Athene who he had loved since the moment he had met her, even if he hadn’t realised it at the time. Anthony wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, who knows, he might even marry her someday.


	83. Epilogue- 1969

Athene was walking home from work along the street, where the Christmas lights were getting slowly turned on as it got dark. She knew the way home well, so found her mind wandering as she walked.

It had been ten years since they had all left St. Christopher’s, but sometimes it only felt like yesterday. 

A lot had changed over the last ten years, but then again somethings hadn’t changed at all. They didn’t see each other every day, but Anthony and Athene got regular letters from Julie and her husband Roger about all the news from Sussex and updates on her son Graham who was now five. 

They also got letters and photographs from Harry and Charlie. They were busy travelling the world with the army but had taken the time to stop at one point a few years back to get married, and according to Charlie’s Christmas letter, they were going to be having to come home soon as Charlie was pregnant!

As for Mark, when he had flown off to Hollywood ten years ago, he had taken the world by storm. He was the male equivalent of Julie Andrews, the Americans loved him because he had such a weird accent, whereas the British just appreciated him for being talented.

It was sometimes a little bit confusing for Anthony’s new students when he was teaching a lecture. The first years would come into a lecture on Roman History and think that he was a film star and not a university professor.

Anthony and Athene had loved Oxford so much, that when Anthony was asked to stay on for a doctorate and then offered a teaching position, they couldn’t say yes fast enough. Athene herself worked at a local primary school as a year two teacher, and she loved working with the children. There was only one thing she loved more.

“Mummy!” called a little girl with dark brown plaits running out into the garden as Athene came to the house.

“Hello, Ruthie!” laughed Athene picking Ruth up as Ruth ran towards her. 

Ruth was nearly four, and more than ready to start school next year. When Athene and Anthony were at work, Mrs Smith their neighbour looked after her for them.

“Have you been a good girl for Mrs Smith?” asked Athene.

“Yes,” said Ruth nodding her head, “I’m always good.”

Athene looked at Mrs Smith somewhat dubiously.

“She’s been a perfect angel as always Mrs Pennington,” beamed Mrs Smith.

“Thank you again,” laughed Athene, “we shouldn’t be needing you again until the new year, we wouldn’t have needed you today if Tony hadn’t been busy.”

“Did you have a nice day?” asked Athene as she and Ruth went into the nice warm house.

“Yes,” she nodded enthusiastically.

“What did you do?”

“We went to the library and I got some new books.”

“Did you now? What did you get?”

“Alice in Wonderland, James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”

“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?” asked Athene confused.

“I didn’t know that Aunty Charlie had a chocolate factory!”

“She probably makes it from the milk from Aunty Julie’s cows!” laughed Ruth.

“You know what,” laughed Athene, “you might be right.”

“We’ll have to read the book to find out what really happens though.”

“Did you do anything else?”

“Yes! We fed the ducks, and then we went to the sweetie shop, and Mrs Smith let me pick some.”

“I got blackcurrant and liquorices!”

“Why did you get those?”

“Because they taste nice, and purple’s my favourite colour.”

“That’s some very good reasoning Cariad.”

“Do you want to help Mummy make the tea; we’re having someone very important coming over.”

“Is it one of Daddy’s colleagues?”

Athene had to try and stop herself from laughing, Ruth had a tendency to use very long words. It was probably because the house was usually full of fellow lecturers or some students dropping by for a chat or some help on an assignment. 

Whenever Anthony had one of his colleagues’ round for dinner, they’d usually stay up half the night talking about current affairs, a new paper or sometimes just what they’d seen on the television recently. 

Anthony and Athene at the moment were watching a new show called Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and Anthony’s best friend Nigel came round to watch it with them whenever it was on. Nigel found it particularly amusing because he had known John Cleese back in the day, as they had been in the Cambridge Footlights together.

John Cleese was one of Anthony’s favourite comedians, and they had been tracking his rise to fame for years by listening to I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again on the radio.

Whenever Anthony and the other professors were chatting after dinner, Ruth always insisted on staying up too. So, she would sit on Anthony’s lap, whilst he discussed the state of the world or pulled apart Cicero until she eventually dropped off on his lap and Athene would carry her up to bed.

Ruth was fascinated by everything and absorbed new knowledge like a sponge. Athene thought she was a bit young to start learning Latin properly yet, but Anthony had started telling her the myths about all the different Greek gods and heroes, and Ruth couldn’t get enough of it.

“No Cariad,” said Athene gently as she put a chicken in the oven.

“It’s not one of Daddy’s friends from work, it’s more special than that.”

“Father Christmas!” breathed Ruth excitedly.

“No,” laughed Athene.

“How many days is it until Christmas again?”

“Twelve,” shrugged Ruth.

“So, Father Christmas won’t come for another twelve days.”

“So, in twelve days, I’ll get a visit from Father Christmas!” exclaimed Ruth.

“That depends on how good you’ve been,” said Athene evasively.

She knew that Mr Pennington always got his costume out. He had eight grandchildren now, Nick and Isabelle had a girl and a boy called Brian and Charlotte, and Simon and Celia had five children now.

“It’s someone very special, but it’s not Santa,” prompted Athene.

“Baby Jesus?” she asked curiously.

“Not quite that special,” chuckled Athene, “even he doesn’t think he’s as special as Jesus.”

Ruth stopped to think for a moment, somebody was coming for tea. It wasn’t one of Daddy’s work friends, it wasn’t Santa, it wasn’t Jesus, but it was someone special. She had no idea!

“Do you remember your Uncle Marky?”

“America!” said Ruth remembering about her Daddy’s brother that Mummy and Daddy talked about all the time.

Sometimes he sent letters, and sometimes he even sent boxes full of nice things from America including a doll that could really talk for her last birthday.

“Well Uncle Marky’s been in America for a long time, the last time he was home was when you were only a little baby. But your Daddy has been to the airport today to pick up your Uncle Marky, and he’s going to be home for a whole month.”

“When they getting here?”

Athene checked her watch.

“Very soon, why don’t you do some nice reading for me whilst we wait?”

“Ok,” said Ruth running off to go and find her book.

“Where are Topsy and Tim off to today?” asked Athene as she chopped vegetables to go with the chicken.

“Topsy and Tim at the Pantomime,” said Ruth reading the title slowly off the cover.

Ruth read much more advanced books when Mummy or Daddy were reading to her. Mummy had started teaching how to read this year, and Ruth could now read Topsy and Tim herself with no help!

As Topsy and Tim finished visiting the pantomime, the house was full of the smell of roasted chicken and there was the sound of the front door opening.

“Salute familia!” called Anthony from the hallway.

“Daddy!” screamed Ruth jumping down from her chair and rushing out into the hallway.

Ruth ran into the hallway and found not one but two Daddy’s who had just finished bringing in a pile of suitcases.

They were both very tall and had similar dark hairs like hers. They were even dressed somewhat alike; they were both wearing jeans and a jumper. She knew that it was her Daddy but which one?

“It’s been too long Tony,” laughed Mark.

“You must be Ruthie!” said Mark crouching down, “look how big you’ve gotten.”

Ruth looked from one Daddy to the other, but which one was the real one.

“It’s ok darling,” chuckled who she thought might be her Daddy reaching out to hug her.

“Mummy!” she screamed running through to the kitchen.

“I’ll bet that’s one moment you wish you’d got on camera Tony,” laughed Mark.

“It’s ok darling,” soothed Athene who was holding a sobbing Ruth.

“Daddy and Uncle Marky are twins, they look alike.”

“Which one’s my Daddy?” she sobbed.

“The one in the glasses,” Athene giggled.

Ruth looked at Mark and Anthony again and saw that whilst her Daddy was wearing his glasses, Uncle Marky did not.

“Daddy!” she called putting out her arms.

“Come here sweetheart,” he chuckled, “see look it’s still the same old me.”

During dinner, Mark told them all about his exciting adventures in Hollywood and how he had really met all the stars that he and Julie used to idolise and even worked with a few of them.

“You’ve worked with Frank Sinatra?” stammered Athene.

“Worked with him, danced with him, sang with him, starred in a film with him everything.”

“What’s Gene Kelly really like?” asked Athene.

“As handsome and dashing as he looks on camera.”

“You haven’t um er.”

Anthony coughed discreetly as Ruth was still in the room.

“What?” asked Mark.

“Oh god no! He’s twice my age.”

Mark had finally come clean about the fact he was gay to the family the last time he was home. It was only actually made legal two years before. The only person who hadn’t been surprised of course was Julie who had known the whole time.

Mark’s agent said it was probably not best to tell the public that he was gay yet, because as Mark was quite handsome and only twenty-nine, at least fifty per cent of his fanbase were teenage girls.

“Are you seeing anyone?” asked Anthony.

“I might be and I might not be,” he smirked.

“Oh all right fine,” said Mark beaming, he couldn’t wait to tell Anthony and Athene about his partner.

“His names Keith he's got bright blonde hair and a golden tan and the brightest blue eyes.”

“Sounds handsome,” nodded Athene.

“And he’s Australian.”

“He’s what?” asked Anthony choking on his mince pie as he was laughing so much.

Athene ignored him as she wanted to know more about Keith.

“How did you meet?”

“On the film set, he’s the assistant director.”

“Why didn’t you bring him with you?” asked Athene.

“Yeah we’d all love to meet him,” said Anthony.

“And I promise that we wouldn’t make fun of his accent until at least his second visit.”

“Ha bloody ha,” muttered Mark.

“He’s busy working, helping the editing team put the film together. Next time maybe if you behave yourselves!”

“You got any photos of him?” asked Athene excitedly.

“Now that I do,” beamed Mark pulling out several photographs from his wallet.

If another person was to walk past and look in the window into the cosy sitting room, they wouldn’t have seen an international film star or a university lecturer. They would have just seen a perfectly ordinary happy family chatting because deep down underneath all their degrees and accolades, that’s all that they really were.


End file.
